
Class /^LQ, 
Book 
Copyright }J^.. 




COPMRIGHT DEPOSm 



CONDITIONS OF LABOR IN 
AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 



Conditions of Labor in 
American Industries 

A SUMMARIZATION OF THE RESULTS 
OF RECENT INVESTIGATIONS 

"by 
W; JETT LAUCK 

AND 

EDGAR SYDENSTRICKER 




FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY 

NEW YORK AND LONDON 

1917 



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Copyright, 1917, by 

FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY 

[Printed in the United States of America] 

Copyright Under the Articles of the Copyright Convention of the 
Pan-American Republics and the United States, August 11, 1910 

Published, Ivlay, 1917 



MAY 14 1917 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER I.— THE LABOR FORCE 

PAGE 

The Racial Composition of Industrial Workers ... i 

The Native White American i 

The Foreign-born Wage-earners 2 

The Germans 3 

Wage-earners from Austria-Hungary .... 3 

The Poles and the Italians 4 

The "War Order" Industries 4 

Racial Distribution in Industries 5 

Extent of Trade-Union Membership 11 

Size and Variety of Trade-Union Organization . 11 

Growth in Union Membership 18 

Proportion of Workers Organized 19 

Women in Industry 20 

The Employment of Children -25 

CHAPTER IL— WAGES AND EARNINGS 

Weekly Wages of Male Workers 29 

Wages of Workers of Different Races .... 38 

Wages in Various Industries 40 

Weekly Wages of Female Workers 43 

Differences in Women's Wages According to In- 
dustry 47 

The Difference in Wages of Men and Women Workers 57 

Annual Earnings of Wage-workers 61 

Recent Increases in Wage Rates ....... 69 



vi CONTENTS 

CHAPTER III— LOSS IN WORKING TIME 



PAGE 



The Wage-earner's Loss in Working Time .... 74 

General Statistics and Statements 76 

Statistics for Specific Industries 81 

Statistics for Specific Trades and Occupations . 93 

The Extent of Unemployment 100 



CHAPTER IV.— CONDITIONS CAUSING 
IRREGULAR EMPLOYMENT 

Analysis of the Causes of Loss in Working Time, or 

Unemployment 117 

Evolutionary Changes Afifecting Employment . . .119 
Changes in Industrial Structure and Methods . .120 
Changes in Demand for Labor According to 

Industry 122 

Changes in Demand for Labor According to 

Locality 123 

Changes in Demand for Labor Due to the In- 
troduction of Machinery and New Pro- 
cesses 126 

Changes in Organization of Industry . . .130 
Changes in the Quantity and Character of the 

Labor Supply 131 

Variations in the Demand for Labor Due to Fluctua- 
tions and Irregularities in Industry . . .137 

Fluctuations, Cyclical 139 

Fluctuations, Seasonal ........ 141 

Irregular Employment 152 

Conditions Determining the Worker's Ability to Grasp 
or Retain the Opportunity to be Employed 

which Industry Offers 164 

Effects of Unemployment 169 



CONTENTS 



Vll 



CHAPTER v.— WORKING CONDITIONS 

PAGE 

Hours of Labor 176 

The Trend Toward a Shorter Working Day . .176 
The Working Day in the Principal Industries . .183 

Industrial Accidents 192 

Occupational Accident Hazards 194 

Causes of Industrial Accidents 197 

Nature of Injuries 203 

Economic Significance of Industrial Accidents . . 207 

Hazards from Harmful Substances 212 

Insanitary Conditions in Places of Work . . . .217 
Profit-sharing and Bonus Plans . . . . . . . 220 

Employers' Welfare Work 227 

Labor and Scientific Management 232 

CHAPTER VL— THE WAGE-EARNER'S 
FAMILY 

Annual Incomes of Wage-working Families . » . 246 
Distribution of Wage-working Families Accord- 
ing to Income 249 

Distribution of Wage- working Families of Differ- 
ent Races According to Income .... 249 
Differences in Family Income According to Geo- 
graphic Divisions 250 

Differences in Family Income According to In- 
dustry 251 

Sources of Family Income 253 

Expenditures of Wage- working Families . . .271 

CHAPTER VII.— LIVING CONDITIONS 

The Diet of Wage- working Families 283 

Housing Conditions . 291 

Living Arrangements 295 

Ownership of Homes 302 

Community Environment 305 



viii CONTENTS 

CHAPTER VIIL— THE WAGE-EARNER'S 
HEALTH 

PAGE 

The Prevalence of Sickness Among Wage-earners. . 315 
The Greater Prevalence of Disease Among Indus- 
trial Workers 317 

Occupational Disease Hazards 321 

Harmful Substances ; Metals, Dusts, Gases, Vapors 

and Fumes 323 

Harmful Conditions in Places of Employment . . 323 
Working Conditions which Cause Excessive 

Fatigue 325 

Morbidity According to Occupation .... 328 
Mortality According to Occupation ..... 329 

Irregularity of Employment and Health 330 

Unhealthful Living Conditions . 334 

Inadequate Diet . . . . 334 

Bad Housing Conditions 335 

Effects of Unfavorable Community Environment 

upon Health 33^ 

The Employment of Women 342 

Poverty and Disease 344 

CHAPTER IX.— THE ADEQUACY OF 
WAGES AND EARNINGS 

Adequacy of Eg^rnings of Male Workers to Support 

Families 357 

The Adequacy of Women's Wages 3^3 

The Adequacy of Family Income 366 

The Point of Adequate Subsistence 3^9 

Studies of Minimum Standards of Family Income Z7^ 

TheWorkingman'sFamily and Higher Living Cost. . 377 

Index 385 



PREFACE 

The present volume is designed to meet a practical 
need for a compact collection of the results of the large 
number of investigations and studies of conditions under 
which the American wage-earner and his family work 
and live. It is presented merely as a summarization of 
the principal and fundamental facts that have been ascer- 
tained during the past decade and a half; it is not in- 
tended to be a critical discussion of these facts, or to be 
an argument in favor of or against any partizan con- 
clusion, or any remedial program. Such conclusions as 
to the existence of a condition, or set of conditions, as 
appeared to be clearly warranted by the facts ascertained 
by official and other authoritative data, have been sug- 
gested, but the attempt has been made to avoid the state- 
ment of opinions or of conclusions which, altho the 
authors may feel convinced of their truth, are not gen- 
erally agreed upon as the actual results of the various 
inquiries. 

The presentation of the data has been confined to the 
conditions of wage-earners in manufacturing and mining 
industries because comparable data for workers in trade 
(with some exceptions), transportation, and agriculture, 
have not been found available. The summarization of 
even these data has been found to be extremely difficult 
because methods of investigation have varied; because 
there has been a wide difference in the scope of the in- 



X PREFACE 

quiries; and because their results have often been stated 
in terms and in forms often impossible of comparison. 
So far as practicable the effort has been made to state the 
results of investigations in comparable terms, but com- 
putations have been studiously avoided in order to allow 
the results of various investigations to be given in their 
original form. In statements of earnings, for example, 
computations and estimates based upon daily and hourly 
rates have not been employed; only statements of actual 
earnings as shown in the reports of investigations have 
been used. It has been deemed best, in presenting a col- 
lection of data from many different sources, to shun the 
introduction of the element of statistical speculation as 
to general conclusions, which must necessarily be founded 
frequently upon meager or slightly related facts. 

The mass of detail which studentsi of labor conditions 
have accumulated in recent years is so great as to render 
impossible the inclusion in a single volume of a consider- 
able amount of descriptive material. The authors have 
therefore been compelled to sacrifice much interesting and 
some illuminating data in order to keep within the limits 
of a practical handbook. The result is a statement, rather 
than description, of some of the fundamental conditions 
of labor in modern industry in the United States, which, 
it is hoped, will prove useful to the student, be he in the 
classroom or in his vocation, employer or employee, busi- 
ness man, social worker or legislator. 

It is thoroughly realized by the authors that since the 
summer of 191 5 there have been marked changes in 
wages, hours, and employment due to unusual industrial 



PREFACE xi 

activity. Attention has been called to these changes at 
various points in the presentation and, wherever there 
have been sufficient data, the general effects of these 
changes have been suggested. As yet, however, the re- 
sults of investigations of the changed conditions of labor 
are not available. Moreover, the permanency of the 
changed conditions during the past two years is, it is be- 
lieved, generally regarded as problematical in considerable 
degree. The summary presented in this volume is thus 
a summary of conditions as they have been found to 
exist in the period roughly indicated as beginning with 
1900 and ending with i9i4or 191 5. 

Much of the labor and facilities necessary for such a 
summarization were rendered possible by the fact that 
the authors were assigned to undertake a similar task for 
the Federal Commission on Industrial Relations, the re- 
sults of which, however, were not published. The authors 
desire to express acknowledgments to other members of 
the Commission's staff for such data as they collected in 
unpublished reports made for the Commission's use, and 
especially to Mr. J. H. Bradford, Miss Frances Valiant, 
Mr. Leifur Magnusson, and Dr. Ralph D. Fleming, who 
for a time were assigned to assist the authors. The 
volume contains considerable data later collected and 
added, however, and particular acknowledgments are due 
to Mr. Leifur Magnusson for the preparation of some of 
the material not included in the scope of the Commission's 
assignment. The sections on Profit-Sharing, Welfare 
Work, and Scientific Management were also prepared by 
Mr. Magnusson. The Index was prepared by Mr. E. 
Kletsch of the Catalog Division, Library of Congress. 



CONDITIONS OF LABOR IN 
AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 

I 

THE LABOR FORCE 

THE RACIAL COMPOSITION OF INDUSTRIAL WORKERS 

Several years ago the former United States Immi- 
gration Commission conducted an exhaustive inquiry as 
to the racial composition of American industry, and the 
situation at present is practically the same as it was when 
this investigation was made. The extent to which differ- 
ent alien races were employed in American industries, as 
disclosed by the Immigration Commission, summarily 
stated, was as follows : 

Native-born Americans of native father, 25 per cent. 
Native-born Americans of foreign father, 17 per cent. 
Foreign-born 58 per cent. 

Fewer than one out of every four workers in our basic 
industries are, therefore, native Americans; while more 
than three out of every five industrial workers are of for- 
eign birth. The remainder, constituting about 17 per 
cent., are immigrant workmen of the second generation. 
Of the native American workers in mines, mills, etc., one- 
fifth are negroes, and four-fifths, whites. On the basis of 
general nativity, 42 per cent, of the industrial forces are 
of native birth while 58 per cent, were born abroad. 

The Native White American 
The native-born white American, or native-born whites 
of native fathers, are employed most extensively in the 

I 



2 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

manufacture of cigars and tobacco, collars and cuffs, 
glass, gloves and shoes. Only a small percentage, ranging 
from one-fifth to one-tenth of the wage-earners in the 
leading branches of American industries, are native white 
Americans. The native negroes have their largest num- 
bers of workers in cigar and tobacco manufacturing, 
bituminous coal mining, and in construction work in the 
Southern States; considerable proportions are also em- 
ployed in slaughtering and meat-packing establishments. 

The Foreign-horn Wage-earners 
The proportion which foreign-born wage-earners con- 
stitute of the total operating forces of some of our lead- 
ing industries may be briefly stated, as follows : 

Per cent, of 
Industry all employees 

Agricultural implements and vehicles 60 

Boots and shoes 27 

Cigars and tobacco ZZ 

Clothing 72 

Bituminous coal mining 62 

Copper mining and smelting 65 

Cotton goods manufacturing 69 

Furniture manufacturing 59 

Glass manufacturing 39 

Iron and steel manufacturing 58 

Iron ore mining 53 

Leather manufacturing 67 

Oil refining 67 

Silk dyeing 75 

Silk goods manufacturing 34 

Slaughtering and meat packing 61 

Sugar refining 85 

Woolen and worsted goods manufacturing 62 

Electric supplies manufacturing 45 

Firearms manufacturing 40 

Foundry and machine shops 55 

Total (all leading industries) ,, ,, ,, ,, ., 58 



IN ^AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 3 

The Germans 
The German industrial workers of the second genera- 
tion, as well as those of recent arrival in this country, are 
most extensively employed in agricultural implement and 
vehicle manufacturing, boot and shoe factories, clothing, 
glass, gloves^ iron and steel, leather, oil refining, silk 
goods, silk dyeing, slaughtering and meat packing, elec- 
tric supplies, cutlery and tools, car building, firearms, 
foundry and machine shops, locomotive building, hosiery 
and knit goods, zinc smelting and refining. 

Wage-earners from Austria-Hungary 
The principal wage-earners from Austria-Hungary are 
Bohemians, Croatians, Magyars and Slovaks. Most 
of these industrial workers are of recent arrival, and com- 
paratively small proportions of those of the second gen- 
eration, or of native birth but of foreign father, are 
employed. Croatians are found in largest numbers in rail- 
road and other construction work, copper mining and 
smelting, iron and steel manufacturing, iron ore mining, 
slaughtering and meat packing, bituminous coal mining, 
leather manufacturing, and oil refining. Magyars, or 
Hungarians, are distributed throughout all industries, the 
greatest numbers being found in iron and steel manufac- 
turing, bituminous coal mining, silk dyeing, and sugar 
manufacturing. The Slovaks are most largely employed 
in bituminous coal mining, oil refining, and iron and steel 
manufacturing. The Bohemians have their largest pro- 
portions engaged in manufacturing clothing, agricultural 
implements and vehicles, in slaughtering and meat pack- 



4 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

ing, and in making electric supplies. They are also well 
represented in the manufacture of glass, gloves, iron and 
steel, furniture and leather. Altogether, wage-earners 
from Austria-Hungary make up, at least, 15 per cent, of 
the operating forces of our leading industries. 

The Poles and the Italians 
Italians, both from the north and south of Italy, are 
extensively employed and constitute about 7 per cent, of 
the total number of industrial workers. Their largest 
numbers are engaged in railroad and other construction 
work, iron ore and bituminous coal mining, and in the 
manufacture of clothing, foundry and machine shops, 
and hosiery and knit goods mills. The Poles are at work 
in practically all branches of industry, the greater propor- 
tion being employed in sugar refineries, cotton mills, fur- 
niture factories, bituminous coal mines, slaughtering and 
meat packing, leather manufacturing, car and locomotive 
building, zinc mining and smelting, in foundry and 
machine shops, and in the rope, twine and hemp industry. 

The ''War Order" Industries 
Probably the racial make-up of the operating forces of 
industries which have received European war orders has 
changed in some cases, especially in the manufacture of 
explosives, since the investigation of the Immigration 
Commission. So far as information is available, how- 
ever, it will be of value to note the conditions in those 
branches of industry most directly related to war. In 
the manufacture of firearms, the Immigration Commis- 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 5 

sion found that two-fifths of the employees were of for- 
eign birth, the principal races represented being French- 
Canadians, English, Irish, Germans, Italians, Poles, 
Scotch and Swedes. In foundries and machine shops, 55 
per cent, of the workers were of foreign birth, the leading 
races being English, German, Irish, Italians, Swedes and 
Poles. In cutlery and tool establishments, 63 per cent, 
of the wage-earners were foreign-born, the largest pro- 
portions being composed of Swedes, Germans, Irish, 
Poles and English. In the coal mines, the Slovaks, Poles, 
and Italians, and Croatians predominate, as well as in. the 
labor forces of iron and steel plants and blast furnaces. 

Racial Distribution in Industries 
Altogether, 56 distinct races were found by the Immi- 
gration Commission to be represented at work in the lead- 
ing branches of American industry. Almost one-half of 
the foreign-born workers were from Southern and East- 
ern Europe, the largest numbers of those of foreign birth 
being from Austria-Hungary, Italy, Russia, and the Bal- 
kans. The distribution of employees by races in 21 basic 
industries of the country is shown in the table on pp. 6 
and 7, in terms of percentages. This table was compiled 
by the former United States Immigration Commission 
and is based on data secured from 507,256 wage-earners.^ 
Similar information was secured for 16 minor indus- 
tries including 112,339 employees. This is set forth in 
the table on p. 8, in terms of percentages by sex and 
industry.^ 

* Report of U. S. Immigration Commission Abstract of Reports on Immigrants 
in Mining and Manufacturing, Washington, 1911, Vol. I, pp. 332-333. 
2 Idem, pp. 343-345. 






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10 



CONDITIONS OF LABOR 



RACE DISTRIBUTION OF EMPLOYEES IN 16 INDUSTRIES FOR WHOM 

CERTAIN INFORMATION WAS SECURED. BY INDUSTRY; 

PERCENTAGES — Continued 

Female 



General Nativity 


1 


II 


o op 

IJ 

Eg 


bObo 

II 


1 




1 




bf 


AND Race 




■li 


1^ 


l| 


•Si 




¥ 


^i 






ti (3 


d w 


^i 


rt C 


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it 


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f 


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E 








r- 


•"* 


^ 




(^ 






Native-bom, of native 




















father: 




















White 


22.2 
.0 


30.7 
.0 


20.6 
.0 


40.8 

(a) 


38.4 
.0 


39.6 
.0 


9.5 
.1 


32.2 
.0 


62.2 


Negro 


.0 


Native-bom of foreign 




















father, by country 




















of birth of father: 




















Austria-Hungary 


1.1 


2.1 


1.4 


1.1 


.1 


.8 


.4 


1.2 


.5 


Canada 


7.0 


4.2 


1.2 


1.9 


9.4 


11.9 


4.8 


.6 


1.9 


England 


2.6 


4.8 


1.8 


3.6 


2.2 


3.1 


.6 


2.9 


4.4 


Germany 


3.6 


8.3 


12.6 


11.5 


3.5 


6.3 


.6 


18.4 


8.2 


Ireland 


7.0 


15.1 


10.8 


14.0 


17.7 


21.7 


3.1 


27.8 


9.9 


Russia 


1.6 
.3 


1.6 

2.7 


1.7 
1.1 


1.4 

.7 


.1 
1.8 


.8 
2.5 


.1 
.9 


1.0 

2.4 


.0 


Scotland 


.3 


Wales 


.0 
1.9 


.1 
2.8 


.1 
3.4 


1.6 
2.1 


.0 
.8 


.6 
1.0 


.0 

.2 


.4 
2.2 


.8 


Other countries. . 


4.1 


Foreign-bom. by race: 




















Bohemian and 




















Moravian 


.0 


.2 


.0 


.1 


.0 


.2 


.0 


.2 


.0 


Canadian, French 


2.8 


2.1 


.4 


.8 


6.5 


3.8 


6.0 


.0 


.0 


Canadian, Other. 


.7 


6.1 


.3 


.6 


.5 


1.9 


.2 


.0 


2.2 


Croatian 


.0 


.1 


.0 


.0 


.0 


.0 


.0 


.0 


.0 


English 


2.1 


4.0 


1.6 


1.6 


1.0 


1.2 


.5 


1.4 


1.1 


German 


1.6 


1.8 


4.4 


2.1 


.6 


.8 


.3 


3.1 


2.2 


Greek 


.0 
3.1 

.8 


.8 

3.5 

.3 


1.2 
1.0 
1.7 


.0 

2.3 
.6 


.0 

12.0 

.1 


.0 

2.1 

.0 


1.7 
2.5 
2.0 


.0 

2.0 

.0 


.0 


Irish 


1.1 


Itahan, North.. . 


.3 


Italian, South. . . 


1.5 


.1 


1.8 


2.0 


.0 


.0 


.9 


.2 


.3 


Lithuanian 


.7 


.4 


2.9 


.8 


.8 


.0 


.1 


.4 


.0 


Magyar 


.0 


.5 


.2 


.3 


.1 


.0 


.0 


.4 


.0 


Polish 


36.5 
.8 


2.1 
.5 


22.4 
3.3 


4.5 
.6 


2.6 
.2 


.0 
.0 


48.9 
2.0 


.4 
1.0 


.0 


Russian 


.0 


Scotch. . . 


1.0 
.0 
.0 


1.3 
.0 

.7 


.2 
.6 

.5 


.4 
2.3 
(c) 


1.3 
.0 
.1 


.2 
.0 
.0 


13.6 
.3 
.0 


1.2 
.0 
.0 


.0 


Slovak 


.0 


Swedish 


.0 


Other races 


1.1 


3.1 


2.8 


2.3 


.2 


1.5 


.7 


.5 


.5 


Grand total. 


100.0 


100.0 


100.0 


100.0 


100.0 


100.0 


100.0 


100.0 


100.0 


Total native-bom of 




















foreign father 


25.1 


41.7 


34.1 


37.9 


35.6 


48.7 


10.7 


56.9 


30.1 


Total native-bom. . . . 


47.3 


72.4 


54.7 


78.7 


74.0 


88.3 


20.3 


89.2 


92.3 


Total foreign-bom . . . 


52.7 


27.6 


45.3 


21.3 


26.0 


11.7 


79.7 


10.8 


7.7 



a Less than 0.05 per cent. 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES ii 

EXTENT OF TRADE-UNION MEMBERSHIP 

The extent of trade-union membership in the United 
States can be only approximated because no single agency, 
either private or official, attempts to collect statistics of 
trade-union membership regularly.^ Recently, however, 
studies of the extent and the growth of labor organiza- 
tion in the United States by Wolman * and by Barnett ^ 
have provided bases for a very much closer estimate of 
the actual number of organized wage-workers, and of the 
proportion they bear to the total number of wage-earners, 
than has been possible heretofore. Professor Barnett's 
study includes the year 19 14 and its results are sum- 
marized briefly below. 

Sise and Variety of Trade-Union Organisation 

A grand total of about 2,700,000 members of trade 
unions in the United States in 1913 and 1914 is indicated. 
This was the highest figure attained up to that time. In 
1897 it was 444,500; in 1905, 1,945,000, and in 1910, 
2,138,000. The following table, abridged from Professor 
Barnett's detailed statistics,^ shows the membership 
in 1 914 of each union and group of unions, the classifica- 

3 The statistics published annually by the American Federation of Labor cover 
only those unions which are affiliated with it, and the unions in the Federation 
are not the same over any given series of years. The New York Department of 
Labor (now under the New York Industrial Commission) has, since 1906, pub- 
lished annually statistics of American trade-union membership supplementary 
to the statistics published by the Federation which, since 19il, are probably 
fairly close approximations. 

* Leo Wolman: The Extent of Labor Organization in the United States in 
1910, Quarterly Journal of Economics, May. 1916. 

"George E. Barnett: Growth of Labor Organization in the United States, 
1897-1914, Quarterly Journal of Economics. August, 1916, 

® Statistics of membership were obtained by Professor Barnett directly from 



12 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

tion of unions into groups being very similar to the classi- 
fication used by the British Board of Trade. The large 
variety of labor organizations, as well as their distinctive- 
ness along industrial lines, is clearly indicated : 



Membership of American Trade Unions, 19 14 

Building : 

Bricklayers and masons 82,500 

Bridge and iron work 13,200 

Building laborers 9,800 

Carpenters. United 212,200 

Cement work 7,300 

Ceramic tile layers 3,000 

Composition roofers 1,600 

Compressed air work .. .. 1,000 

Electrical work (A. F. of L.) 30,800 

Elevator constructors 2,700 

Heat and asbestos work 1,000 

Hod carriers 25,600 

Marble work 4,100 

Painters 74,400 

Plasterers 18,000 

Plumbers 29,700 

Sheet metal work 17,800 

Slate and tile roofers 600 

Wood and metal lathers 6,700 

Total in group . . 542,000 



official publications of the unions or from union officials wherever possible. 
These were supplemented by statistics of affiliated unions taken from the reports 
of the American Federation of Labor, and by statistics of unaffiliated unions from 
the reports of the New York Department of Labor. 

For an explanation and discussion of the sources of the data and of the 
methods employed in this compilation, see Barnett, loc. cit., p. 785. 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 13 

Metal, machinery, and shipbuilding : 

Blacksmiths 9,600 

Boiler makers 16,700 

Carriage work 3,500 

Car work 11,000 

Chandelier work 400 

Cutting die makers 300 

Diamond work 300 

Engineers, Amalgamated 2,700 

Foundry employees 600 

Iron, steel and tin work 6,500 

Machinists 75,400 

Metal polishers 10,000 

Metal work, Brotherhood 1,700 

Molders .. 50,000 

Pattern makers 6,700 

Pocket knife grinders 300 

Railway carmen 28,700 

Saw smiths 100 

Stove mounters 1,100 

Wire weavers 300 

Total in group 225,900 

Textile : 

Cloth weavers 5,000 

Elastic goring weavers 100 

Lace operatives . . 1,200 

Loomfixers 1,600 

Machine textile printers 400 

Print cutters 400 

Spinners 2,200 

Textile work 18,000 

Wool sorters and graders 1,400 

Total in group 30,300 



14 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

Mining and quarrying: 

Miners, Western Federation 36,900 

Mine workers. United 339,000 

Quarry work 4,000 

Slate work 300 

Total in group 380,200 

Transportation : 

Commercial telegraphers 1,000 

Locomotive engineers 73,800 

Locomotive firemen 86,800 

Longshoremen 25,000 

Maintenance of way employees 6,500 

Marine engineers 9,100 

Masters, mates, and pilots 5,000 

Mechanical trackmen 300 

Pavers 1,600 

Paving cutters 3,500 

Railroad freight handlers 2,900 

Railroad signalmen 700 

Railroad station agents 1,100 

Railroad station employees 4,300 

Railroad telegraphers 25,000 

Railroad trainmen 126,100 

Railway clerks 5,000 

Railway conductors 49,100 

Seamen .. .. 16,000 

Steam shovelmen 1,800 

Street and electric railway employees 54,500 

Switchmen 9,800 

Teamsters 51,100 

Tunnel constructors 1,700 

Total in group 561,700 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 15 

Clothing : 

Cloth hat and cap makers 3,600 

Garment work 60,700 

Glove work 1,100 

Hatters 9,000 

Ladies' garment work 69,900 

Straw and ladies' hatters 700 

Tailors 12,000 

Total in group 157,000 

Paper, printing and bookbinding: 

Bookbinders 9,400 

Lithographers 2,800 

Lithographic press feeders . . 1,000 

Lithographic workmen 500 

Machine printers 500 

Paper makers 4,400 

Photo-engravers 4,700 

Poster artists 400 

Printing pressmen . . ., 19,300 

Pulp and paper mill work 3,500 

Steel plate printers 1,300 

Steel plate transferrers 100 

Stereotypers and electrotypers 4,500 

Typographical 58,500 

Total in group 110,900 

Leather : 

Boot and shoe work 38,100 

Boot and shoe cutters 700 

Leather work on horse goods 1,800 

Shoe work. United 14,000 

Traveling goods and leather novelty work . . . . 900 

Total in group 55,500 



i6 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

Lumber and woodworking: 

Box makers and sawyers 12,300 

Coopers 4,400 

Piano and organ work 1,000 

Timber work 2,500 

Upholsterers 3,500 

Wood-carvers 1,100 

Total in group 24,800 



Chemical, clay, glass and stone: 

Brick, tile work 3,200 

Flint glass work 9,900 

Glass bottle blowers 10,000 

Glass work, Amalgamated 1,200 

Granite cutters 13,500 

Potters, operative 7,700 

Powder work 200 

Stone-cutters 6,000 

Window glass snappers 2,200 

Window glass work 3,900 

Total in group . . 57,800 



Public service: 

Government employees 4,000 

Letter carriers 32,200 

Post office clerks, Assoc 25,000 

Post office clerks. Fed 2,800 

Railway mail association 12,900 

Railway postal clerks . . 1,500 

State, city employees 2,800 

Total in group 81,200 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 17 

Food, liquor and tobacco: 

Bakery work 15,700 

Brewery work 67,600 

Cigarmakers 48,500 

Stogie makers 1,400 

Tobacco work 3,700 

Total in group 136,900 



Restaurant and trade: 

Butcher work 2,000 

Hotel employees 59,000 

Hotel work 12,600 

Meat cutters 6,200 

Retail clerks 15,000 

Total in group 94,800 

Miscellaneous : 

Barbers .. 34,300 

Bill posters 1,400 

Broom makers 700 

Brush makers 200 

Trade and Fed. Unions (A. F. of L.) 27,200 

Fur work 800 

Horseshoers 5;700 

I. W. W. (Chicago) 12,000 

I. W. W. (Detroit) 2,000 

Laundry work 2,800 

Stationary firemen 16,000 

Steam engineers 20,300 

Total in group : . .... 123,400 



i8 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

Theaters and music: 

Musical and theatrical union 6,000 

Musicians .. .. 60,000 

Theatrical stage employees 15,000 

White Rats Actors' Union 11,000 

Total in group 92,000 

Total in all groups 2,674,400 

Grozvth in Union Membership 

The annual statistics from 1897 to 19 14 have ex- 
hibited, in the main, a steady growth. There were, how- 
ever, several marked variations. It is interesting to note 
that these variations reflected very closely the changes in 
business conditions, a loss of membership resulting when- 
ever a depression occurred and an increase in member- 
ship whenever a period of prosperity took place. Thus 
from 1897 to 1904 there was a period of uninterrupted 
increase in membership from 444,500 to 2,072,600; from 
1904 to 1909 the membership was practically stationary, 
concurrent with business depressions in 1904 and 1907; 
and from 1909 to 19 13 another period of increase in 
membership and of absence of depressions. It is quite 
probable that the slight decrease in 19 14 has been more 
than offset in the period of industrial activity which be- 
gan in the summer of 1915, if we may judge from the 
reports of the American Federation of Labor and from 
statements of a number of trade-union officials. 

The following table shows for each group the per cent, 
of the total trade-union membership contained in each 
group for each of the years 1897, 1900, 1910, and 19 14, 



IN "AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 19 

the groups being arranged in the order of their im- 
portance in 1897 -^ 

PER CENT. OF TOTAL MEMBERSHIP IN EACH GROUP OF UNIONS 
IN THE YEARS 1897. 1900. 1910 AND 1914 

1897 1900 1910 1914 

Transportation 26.2 21.9 22.5 21.0 

Building 15.2 17.7 21.5 20.3 

Metal, machinery and shipbuilding . . 11.3 9.3 9.2 8.4 

Food, liquor and tobacco 9.9 7.6 5.4 5.1 

Paper, printing and bookbinding . . . . 8.5 5.5 4.2 4.1 

Chemical, clay, glass and stone . . . . 5.2 3.4 2.8 2.2 

Mining and quarrying 4.7 15.1 12.9 14.2 

Clothing 3.3 2.9 4.6 5.9 

Leather 2.9 0.8 2.1 2.1 

Public service 2.5 1.8 2.7 3.0 

Textile 1.8 0.9 1.0 1.1 

Theaters and music 1.5 1.1 2.8 3.4 

Restaurants and trade 1.4 3.2 2.8 3.5 

Lumber and woodworking 1.2 3.0 1.3 0.9 

Miscellaneous 4.3 5.8 4.4 4.6 

It will be noted that the transportation, building and 
mining groups have contained about half of the total 
trade-union membership, and over half of the total in- 
crease in membership has been in these unions. The 
groups showing an actual decrease in their relative im- 
portance are paper, printing and bookbinding and the 
chemical, clay, glass, and stone groups; these, however, 
were already fairly well organized in 1897. The total 
increase in trade-union membership appeared to be at a 
much more rapid rate than the increase in population, or 
in the number of gainfully occupied persons. 

Proportion of Workers Organized 
The census statistics of occupations do not permit of 
an accurate separation of "wage-earners" from the total 

» Barnett, loc. cit., p. I9d. 



20 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

of those who are enumerated as "gainfully employed," 
but by deducting employers or self-employed and fee- 
receiving workers (professional), an approximation of 
the total number of wage-earners is possible. In 1900 
there were 21,837,050 such wage-earners and in 19 10, 
30,267,000, Using these figures and the statistics of 
trade-union membership for the same years as bases for 
computation. Professor Barnett has estimated that the 
trade-union membership was 4 per cent, of the total 
number of wage-earners in 1900 and 7 per cent, in 
19 10. In view of the lessened rate of immigration and 
the increase in union membership in 191 5 and 19 16, it is 
very probable that the ratio was considerably higher at 
the end of 1916 than in 1910. 

WOMEN IN INDUSTRY 

The proportion of women 10 years of age and over in 
gainful occupations in the United States increased from 
18.3 per cent, in 1900 to 21.2 per cent, in 1910. The 
largest proportionate increase was in the number engaged 
in personal and domestic service (explained as due to a 
change in classification as between the different cen- 
suses), followed by an increase of from 10.6 per cent, in 
trade and transportation to 15.8 between 1900 and 19 10. 
Here opportunities for women have probably increased. 
In agriculture a substantial increase has occurred — 9.4 
per cent, to 14.4 per cent. In manufacturing and 
mechanical pursuits only has a decrease occurred — from 
18.5 per cent, to 16.4 per cent. There is not an industry 
group embraced in the Federal Census report in which 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 21 

women are not employed. The different branches of in- 
dustry in which the largest proportion of women were 
reported in 19 10 were as follows: 

Paint factories. 

Munition and fireworks establishments. 

Chemical works. 

Soap factories. 

Clothing manufacturing. 

Corset, glove and hat factories. 

Candy factories. 

Manufacture of food products. 

Wagon and carriage manufacturing. 

Leather and leather products manufacturing. 

Shoe factories. 

Clock and watch and jewelry factories. 

Box factories. 

Paper products manufacturing. 

Printing and publishing. 

Cotton, knitting, woolen, lace and embroidery, linen, silk, 

and carpet mills. 
Button factories. 
Rubber factories. 
Straw factories. 
Laundries. 

A large part of the office staffs of banks, insurance 
companies, brokerage offices and real estate firms were 
composed of girls and women. Slightly more than one- 
sixth of the total number of persons employed in whole- 
sale and retail trade were female persons. Almost one- 
half of the workers in professional service, and two- 
thirds of those in domestic service, were also women and 
girls. The following table shows the employment of 
such persons in the United States in 19 10, by age groups, 
and by principal industries : 



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IN "AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 25 

THE EMPLOYMENT OF CHILDREN 

The latest available statistics as to the extent to which 
children under 16 years of age were gainfully employed 
are contained in the Federal Census of 19 10. According 
to these reports there were 1,990,225 children of both 
sexes between the ages of 10 and 15 years who were gain- 
fully employed at the time the information was gathered. 
They constituted almost 12 per cent, of all persons gain- 
fully employed in agricultural pursuits and slightly more 
than 2 per cent, of those in other gainful pursuits than 
agricultural. 

Of all the children gainfully employed, 895,946 were 
less than 14 years of age. Of those between the ages 
of 10 and 13 years, 609,030 were boys and 286,946 girls. 

Almost 17,000 boys under 16 were working in coal 
and iron ore mines and quarries, of which number about 
2,200 were between the ages of 10 and 13 years. The 
industries in which children under 16 were employed in 
the greatest numbers were clothing, shoe factories, 
bakeries, candy, hat, collar, shirt and cuff factories, 
slaughtering and meat-packing houses, blast furnaces and 
steel mills, saw and planing mills, printing and publishing 
establishments, cotton mills, telegraph and telephones, 
banking and brokerage offices, cigar and tobacco factories, 
silk, knitting, and woolen mills. By far the greatest num- 
ber of children were at work in mercantile establishments 
and textile mills. The following table shows in a sum- 
mary way the extent to which children were employed in 
1910 by age, sex, and industry: 



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2S CONDITIONS OF LABOR 



II 

WAGES AND EARNINGS 

For the purpose of ascertaining the economic status 
of wage-earners, statistics of wage rates are useful only 
in the sense that they afford data as to the maximum 
possible earnings of workers in various occupations, 
industries and localities. The loss of working. time is so 
considerable and so variable a factor in different occu- 
pations and industries, as will be pointed out in a later 
chapter, that statistics of weekly full-time earnings, 
or weekly wage rates, or even of actual weekly earn- 
ings, can not be employed to indicate the condition of 
labor from the standpoint of its economic advantages or 
disadvantages, unless the extent of the actual oppor- 
tunity to receive wages regularly be taken into con- 
sideration. Statistics of annual earnings, therefore, 
are a far more accurate method of measuring the real 
advantages which individual wage-earners obtain from 
their wages. Since the family is the natural economic 
unit, however, the adequacy of the individual wage- 
earner's earnings must be interpreted in terms of the 
amount necessary to support a family under varying 
conditions of community environment. Statistics of 
family income must be regarded as the most accurate 
and complete index of the economic status of the wage- 
working population of any locality or in any industry. 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 29 

With this very general statement concerning the 
value of the different forms of wage statistics, it 
is purposed in the following pages to present a brief 
summary of the recent statistics of weekly wage rates 
and weekly earnings of adult wage- workers, and such 
statistics of actual annual earnings as are available. 
No attempt is made to include statistics of hourly or 
daily wage rates, or computations made from them; 
nor has it been deemed advisable to include the results 
of various general computations of annual earnings 
from hourly, daily, or weekly wage rates or earnings, 
since the factor of loss of time is not an accurately 
determinable one. The following summary is thus con- 
fined to the published statistics of weekly wage rates 
and to the results of investigations which have afforded 
data relating to weekly and annual earnings. In a 
later chapter similar data regarding family income are 
presented. 

Weekly Wages of Male Workers 

Taking all the principal industries, for which data 
are available, into consideration, the conclusion appears 
to be warranted that during the past few years between 
one-fifth and one-third of the male workers 18 years 
of age and over earned at rates of less than $10 a week, 
between two-thirds and three-fourths earned less than 
$15, and only about 10 per cent, earned more than 
$20 a week. 

This does not take into consideration time lost from 
any cause, altho some of the statistics upon which this 



30 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

conclusion is based specify actual weekly earnings, 
while other statistics afford data as to weekly full 
time earnings, or weekly rates of pay. The conclusion 
has been stated in terms of sufficient latitude to allow 
for these considerations. 

The Federal Immigration Commission's data for 
220,390 male employees in representative establishments 
in industrial localities showed that 32 per cent, earned 
less than $10; 75 per cent, less than $15, and 93 per 
cent, less than $20 a week, the average being $12.64. 
These percentages are for both foreign and native-born 
workers, the latter constituting about 60 per cent, of 
the total 220,390 individuals, but they are not greatly 
affected by the slight predominance of foreign-born 
employees. It will be seen that the average percentage 
of all employees earning less than the specified amounts 
is very nearly the average of the percentage for both 
nativity groups in every instance. Foreign-born workers, 
however, appeared to be lower in the industrial scale 
than native-born, as shown in the following summary 
of the Immigration Commission's figures : 

WEEKLY EARNINGS OF MALE WORKERS 18 YEARS OF AGE AND 
OVER, BY NATIVITY GROUPS. (Per Cent.) 

Foreign Native 

born born Total 

Under $10 .. .. .. 36 25 32 

Under $15 80 65 75 

Under $20 95 88 93 

Number 139,610 80,780 220,390 

The percentage for total employees shown by the 
regular State reports of New Jersey, Massachusetts, 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 31 

Kansas and Ohio, while depicting rates of wages rather 
than actual weekly earnings in specific sections of the 
country, tend to corroborate the earlier data from the 
Immigration Commission's reports for all the principal 
industrial sections in the United States. The state 
figures are given in the following tabulation along with 
the totals from the Immigration Commission's report: 

WEEKLY EARNINGS OF MALE EMPLOYEES IN ALL INDUSTRIES » 
Per cent, earning specified amounts or rates 

w 

^ n ^ 4) 

OS ^ to 

Weekly '^'5 .g 2 *.- ^ tf if tf 

slag ^S&s; ^c^l^S ^m^^ -J^fSS 

Under $10 . . 32 30 25 17 12 

Under $15 .. 75 68 65 63 57 

Under $20 ..93 89 88 86 a 

Total number 220,390 259,341 446,530 54,178 573,245& 

a Seventy-six per cent, under $18 per week and 94 per cent, under $25 per 
week. 

b Exclusive of bookkeepers, stenographers, office help, and salesmen. 

The Ohio report, which is one of the most compre- 
hensive statistical presentations of wage statistics of its 
kind, included data for employees in every industry 
within that state in which three or more establishments 
reported and 200 or more wage-earners were repre- 
sented. It showed that 11. 7 per cent, of male wage- 
earners 18 years of age or over worked for less than 
$10 a week, 29.6 per cent, for less than $12, 56.9 per 

^ The age limits in the various reports differ slightly. The Immigration 
Commission and the Massachusetts and Ohio reports are for males 18 years 
of age and over, and the New Jersey and Kansas reports are for male em- 
ployees 16 years of age and over. 



32 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

cent, for less than $15, 76.0 per cent, for less than $18, 
and 94.1 per cent, for less than $25 a week. 

The wage data for the 573,245 male wage-earners 18 
years of age or over are briefly summarized below : 

CLASSIFIED RATES OF WAGES OF MALE WAGE-EARNERS 18 
YEARS OF AGE OR OVER IN OHIO, 1914 

Number of adult male p ^^^ 
Rate of Wages per Week wage-earners at each ,. tj-ju^tjon 

classified rate 

Less than $6 5.904 1.1 

$6 but under $7 5,696 1.0 

7 but under 8 8,588 1.5 

8 but under 9 13,571 2.4 

9 but under 10 32,794 5.7 

10 but under 12 102,460 17.9 

12 but under 15 156,260 27.3 

15 but under 18 109,225 19.1 

18 but under 25 103,545 18.1 

25 but under 35 28,814 5.0 

35 or over 6,388 1.1 

Total 573,245 100.0 

The classified rate of wages occurring more fre- 
quently than any other is $12 but under $15 per week, 
at which rate 156,260, or 27.3 per cent, of the total 
number, work. The rate second in importance is $15 
but under $18 per week, at which rate 109,225, or 
1 9. 1 per cent, of the total number, are employed. Com- 
bining the groups it will be seen that 258,720, or 45.2 
per cent, of the total number, work for $10 but under 
$15 per week, and that 212,770, or 37.2 per cent, of the 
total number, work for $15 but under $25 per week.^ 

The recent investigations of the New York Factory 
Investigating Commission found that in four industries 

s Bulletin of the Industrial Commission of Ohio: Rates of Wages, Hours 
of Labor, and Fluctuation of Employment in Ohio in 1914, p. 8. 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 33 

— confectionery, paper box and shirt factories and retail 
stores — more than three-fifths of the male workers 
received less than $15 per week when working full time.' 
In the following table is presented a compilation of 
statistics from recent official sources showing the pro- 
portion of male workers earning under specified amounts 
weekly. Some of these data represent actual earnings; 
others, full time weekly rates of pay:* 

3H. B. Woolston: Wages in New York; Survey, Feb. 6, 1915, p. 505. 

* The foregoing statistics were compiled from the following reports and 
publications. The age limits used in the various sources are also indicated 
below: 

Census — Report on manufactures, 1905 (16 years and over). 

Conditions of employment in the iron and steel industry in the United 
States. 62d Cong., 1st Sess., Senate Doc. No. 110. 1913. Vol. III. 

Fitch, John. The steel workers, 1910. 

Kansas — Department of labor and industry: Annual report for 1913 (16 
years and over). 

Kennedy, J. C. Wages and family budgets in the Chicago stock yards 
district, 1914. (Men.) 

Massachusetts Bureau of statistics: Annual report on the statistics of manu- 
factures for the year 1913. (18 years and over.) 

Massachusetts — Bureau of statistics: Wages and hours in the paper and 
wood pulp industry, 1914. (16 years and over.) 

New Jersey — Bureau of statistics: Annual report of labor and industries of 
New Jersey for the year ending October 31, 1913. (16 years and over.) 

Report on strike at Bethlehem steel works, 1910. 61st Cong., 3d Sess,, 
Senate Doc. No. 521. 

Strike investigation committee of the Copper County Commercial Qub, 1913. 

Strike of textile workers in Lawrence, Mass., in 1912. 62d Cong., 2d Sess., 
Senate Doc. No. 870. (18 years and over.) 

U. S. Bureau of labor: Bulletin No. 139. Michigan copper district strike, 
1914. 

U. S. Bureau of labor statistics: Wages, etc., in the dress and waist in- 
dustry in New York City, 1913. (Men.) 

U. S. Immigration Commission: Reports. (18 years and over.) 

Woman and Child wage-earners in the United States, 1910. 61st Cong., 
2d Sess., Senate Doc. No. 645. (18 years and over.) 

Woolston, H. B. Wages in New York. (Results of New York factory 
investigating commission.) Survey, February 6, 1915. 



f 






-v 


$6 


$10 


$15 


$20 


3.9 


34.3 


78.7 


94.2 


1.5 


23.6 


76.9 


94.5 


1.3 


6.3 


69.6 


88.6 


8.3 


48.0 


82.6 


96.3 


.... 


20.7 


66.0 


96.4 


9.5 


34.5 


67.4 


88.6 


1.2 


13.5 


44.8 


76.4 


12.0 


40.5 


74.7 


93.0 




30.7 


70.5 


96.1 



34 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 



WEEKLY WAGES OF MALE EMPLOYEES 

Per cent, earning under 
Industry Number specified amounts 



Agricultural implements: 

New Jersey report 621 

Massachusetts report 585 

Kansas report 79 

Census report, 1905 30,679 

Immigration Commission 21,104 

Boots and shoes: 

New Jersey report 2,536 

Massachusetts report 56,520 

Census report, 1905 59,142 

Immigration Commission 9,906 

Boxes: 

New Jersey Report 1,289 11.3 41.7 76.6 94.9 

Massachusetts report: 

Fancy and paper 1,518 

Wooden packing 3,628 

Kansas report 412 

New York Factory Investigating 

Commission 2,194 

Woman and Child Wage-earners: 

Cigar boxes 292 

Paper boxes 809 

Census report, 1905: 

Cigar boxes 1,361 

Fancy and paper 5,484 

Canneries: 

Massachusetts report 1,353 

Kansas report 47 

Woman and Child Wage-earners: 

Fruits and vegetables 355 

Oysters 152 

Census report, 1905: 

Fish 5,557 

Fruits and vegetables 16,717 

Oysters 213 

Cigars and tobacco: 

New Jersey report 2,283 

Massachusetts report 3,235 

Kansas report 123 

Woman and Child Wage-earners: 

Cigars 4,465 

Cigarettes 460 

Tobacco and snuflf 2,597 

Census report, 1905: 

Cigars and cigarettes 46,680 

Tobacco, chewing and smoking, 

and snuflf 8,703 



1.1 

1.4 
1.2 


15.9 

25.7 
28.6 


68.5 
86.1 
76.8 


91.9 
97.2 
89.8 


10.0 


40.0 


71.1 


91.4 


10.3 
6.1 


38.2 
37.0 


.... 


.... 


21.1 
19.6 


61.0 
53.5 


92.4 
85.2 


98.8 
96.4 


4.1 


22.7 
76.6 


75.8 
91.5 


95.8 
95.7 


2.0 
51.3 


44.8 
83.6 


:;;: 


.... 


5.3 
18.9 
61.0 


31.8 
63.9 
82.7 


70.5 
91.7 
96.7 


89.5 

98.4 

100.0 


7.8 

2.3 

17.1 


41.6 

6.9 

29.3 


76.6 

24.5 
70.7 


91.4 
54.6 
99.2 


5.4 

8.7 

29.3 


21.4 
45.0 
80.2 


.... 


.... 


15.5 


40.2 


78.3 


95.0 


45.5 


83.2 


96.0 


99.1 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 35 

WEEKLY WAGES OF MALE EMPLOYEES— Continued 

Per cent, earning under 
Industry Number specified amounts 



Clothing: 

New Jersey report 632 

Massachusetts report — ^Men's. . . . 3,338 

Massachusetts report — Women's .. 1,641 

Kansas report 45 

Woman and Child Wage-earners: 
Shirts, overalls and underwear, 

1910 502 

1911 report 5,503 

Wages, etc., in dress and waist indus- 
try in New York City, 1913: 

Week workers 914 

Piece-workers 1,511 

Census report, 1905: 

Men's 19,095 

Women's 13,205 

Confectionery: 

New Jersey report 307 

Massachusetts report 2,070 

Kansas report 449 

New York Factory Investigating 

Commission, 1914 2,465 

Woman and child wage-earners . . 1,460 

Census report, 1905 7,595 

Copper mining and smelting: 

Immigration Commission 6,79^ .... 8.3 67.1 97.0 

Corsets: 

New Jersey report 232 

Massachusetts report 307 

Woman and child wage-earners . . 451 

Census report, 1905 523 

Cotton goods: 

New Jersey report: 

Cotton goods 2,210 

Finishing and dyeing 3,580 

Massachusetts report: 

Cotton goods 59,181 

Cotton small wares 369 

Woman and child wage-earners: 

New England group 6,492 

Southern group 9,439 

Report on Lawrence strike, 1912 . . 2,568 

Census report, 1905 95,025 

Furniture: 

Massachusetts report 7,841 

Kansas report 386 

Census report, 1905 53,715 

Immigration Commission 3,157 



$6 


$10 


$15 


$20 


6.2 
0.6 
0.9 
4.4 


33.9 
8.9 
9.9 

33.3 


68.5 
44.7 
29.0 
68.9 


88.4 
75.8 
60.7 
86.7 


17.1 
19.6 


59.8 
52.1 


.... 




2.2 
2.7 


16.6 
9.1 


a 61.7 
a 33.3 


89.4 
55.7 


10.2 
6.3 


35.8 
31.6 


68.9 
66.0 


88.1 
84.3 


12.7 

1.8 

13.1 


59.9 
44.1 
35.9 


82.7 
77.0 
69.3 


94.5 
92.6 
91.1 


10.9 
15.7 
16.4 


51.9 
50.4 
54.6 


84.1 
82*.6 


95.1 
94.8 



9.9 
2.6 
1.3 
8.2 


33.2 
21.8 
18.6 
26.4 


59.5 
48.5 

65^9 


86.6 
80.5 

83!9 


3.2 
6.5 


50.3 
71.4 


86.7 
89.0 


94.6 
95.4 


3.5 
2.4 


51.2 
36.0 


88.8 
76.4 


95.4 
93.0 


32.0 

48.4 

6.2 

31.2 


71.8 
90.1 
59.3 
76.2 


93^8 
95.7 


95.'8 
98.7 


3.0 
14.0 
12.4 


24.8 
47.7 
53.8 
30.1 


72.5 
83.4 
86.4 
83.9 


91.9 
97.9 
97.5 
98.0 



36 



CONDITIONS OF LABOR 



WEEKLY WAGES OF MALE EMPLOYEES— Confrnw^i 



Industry 



Numb« 



Per cent, earning under 
specified amounts 



Glass: 
New Jersey report: 

Cut tableware 450 

Mirrors 135 

Window glass and bottles . . . . 6,998 

Massachusetts report: 

Glass cutting, staining and orna- 
menting 243 

Kansas report: 

Glass factories 624 

Woman and child wage-earners .. 1,840 

Census report, 1905 31,510 

Immigration Commission: 

Bottles 3,038 

Plate glass 3,261 

Tableware 1,858 

Window glass 1,432 

Hosiery and knit goods: * 

New Jersey report 1,478 

Massachusetts report 2,950 

Woman and child wage-earners . . 2,218 

Census report, 1905 11,558 

Iron and steel: 

New Jersey report: 

Bar 1,534 

Forging 2,834 

Structural 4,714 

Massachusetts report: 

Steel works and rolling mills . . 3,549 

Census report, 1905: 

Blast furnaces 23,796 

Rolling mills 117,374 

Immigration Commission 77,280 

Leather: 

New Jersey report: 

Leather 6,817 

Leather goods 592 

Massachusetts report: 

Tan, curried and finished .. .. 11,618 

Leather goods 311 

Census report, 1905: 

Tan, curried and finished . . . . 38,293 

Leather goods 1,752 

Immigration Commission 10,912 

Mining — Iron ore: 

New Jersey report 1,219 

Immigration Commission 7,748 



$6 



$10 



$15 



$20 



18.2 
4.4 
S.O 


46.0 
34.1 
49.2 


75.0 
65.9 
52.3 


94.0 
92.6 

75.5 


3.3 


19.8 


52.2 


88.5 


2.7 
32.5 
14.3 


17.1 
95.0 
42.3 


52.9 
66^6 


61.1 
77!5 


.... 


37.6 
41.0 
30.7 
17.9 


63.1 
78.9 
58.7 
55.5 


74.9 
96.7 
78.9 
78.8 


5.8 

3.4 

7.1 

19.1 


28.0 
40.4 
46.8 
68.9 


64.1 
79.8 

9i.'5 


77.0 
91.9 

97*.3 



2.0 
0.6 
1.0 


44.5 
31.0 
26.7 


80.4 
65.2 
67.5 


92.3 
89.9 
82.1 


0.2 


8.0 


55.9 


89.3 


4.4 
5.9 


27.3 
43.3 
23.6 


85.2 
77.1 
66.3 


96.8 
89.8 
87.3 



2.5 
21.3 


25.8 
44.6 


69.5 
81.1 


88.3 
94.4 


0.5 
3.5 


27.0 
29.6 


76.0 
64.0 


93.5 
91.0 


8.8 
16.9 


55.3 
49.5 
44.0 


91.4 
79.2 
90.0 


98.3 
94.2 
98.9 


5.4 


47.4 
16.1 


94.7 
75.2 


99.3 
98.3 



Pe 


r cent, earning under 




specified 


amounts 










\ 


$6 


$10 


$15 


$20 


2.2 


39.1 


78.9 


91.3 


0.1 


16.9 


76.3 


93.2 


6.6 


36.0 


83.4 


94.3 


2.1 


21.3 


74.3 




6.7 


51.5 


86.9 


96.7 


7.8 


30.2 






8.6 


53.5 


84.3 


94.0 


11.7 


31.3 


53.0 




2.0 


12.4 


Zl.l 


.... 


10.9 


26.7 


51.3 





IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 37 

WEEKLY WAGES OF MALE EMPLOYEES— Confinw^i 
Industry Number 



Paper and wood pulp: 

New Jersey report . . .... . . 3,770 

Massachusetts report 10,281 

Kansas report 211 

Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics, 

1914 9,256 

Census report, 1905 31,735 

Pottery: 
Woman and child wage-earners . . 1,465 
Census report, 1905 21,838 

Printing and bookbinding: 

New Jersey report 1,117 

Massachusetts report 4,538 

Kansas report 1,578 

Census report, 1905: 

Bookbinding 4,830 15.8 40.4 66.7 90.2 

Silk: 

New Jersey report: 

Silk — Broad and ribbon 11,085 

Silk dyeing 5,130 

Silk throwing 550 

Massachusetts report: 

Silk and silk goods including 

throwsters 1,304 

Census report, 1905 9,888 

Immigration Commission: 

Silk goods 3,077 

Silk dyeing 1,003 

Slaughtering and meat packing: 

Massachusetts report 3,393 

Kansas report 10,311 

Kennedy, J. C, Wages and Family 
Budgets in the Chicago Stock 
Yards District, 1914: 

October, 1910 — good season .. 7,096 39.5 83.0 95.9 

March and April, 1910 — a duller 

period 5,762 

Census report, 1905 30,824 

Woolen and worsted goods: 

New Jersey report 7,116 

Massachusetts report 31,317 

Woman and child wage-earners . . 5,147 
Strike of textile workers in Lawrence, 

1912 8,507 

Census report, 1905: 

Woolen goods 27,202 

Worsted goods 21,243 

Immigration Commission 20,846 



6.0 

0.9 

17.6 


24.3 
23.5 
64.2 


64.2 
85.8 
77.3 


92.3 
95.0 
86.4 


2.6 
17.4 


25.2 
46.9 


78.5 
80.5 


95.5 
95.9 


.... 


27.7 
3.1 


71.2 
93.1 


94.2 
97.4 


*i'.i 


17.2 
25.2 


80.5 
80.2 


94.9 
95.0 



7.0 


60.3 
37.4 


86.6 
86.7 


95.6 
97.6 


3.8 
0.7 
7.5 


43.9 
41.5 
50.7 


79.9 
81.5 


93.6 
96.8 


5.6 


55.6 


67.8 


92.2 


10.3 
15.4 


65.1 
56.1 
51.8 


93.6 
88.6 
88.6 


98.5 
98.2 
98.7 



38 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

Wages of Workers of Different Races. — Investigations 
of wages agree in showing that workers of certain races, 
or racial groups, on an average, work for less wages than 
do other workers. The Immigration Commission, for 
example, found that, taking all the workers in various 
industries according to race, some of the more striking 
differences in average weekly wage were as follows : 

Average 
General Nativity and Race weekly 

earnings 

Native-born of native father (white) $14.37 

Native-born of foreign father 13.91 

Total native-born 13.89 

Foreign-born 11.92 

Older Immigration; for example: 

Canadian, French 10.62 

English 14.13 

Finnish 13.27 

German 13.63 

Irish 13.01 

Scotch 15.24 

Welsh 22.02 

Newer Immigration ; for example : 

Croatian 11.37 

Russian, Hebrew 12.71 

Italian, North 11.28 

Italian, South 9.61 

Lithuanian 11.03 

Polish 11.06 

Russian 11.01 

Slovak 11.95 

Grand Total 12.64 

Altogether, however, the racial differences shown 
above are surprizingly slight. The theory that workers 
of certain races are inherently much inferior to workers 
of certain other races does not appear to be sub- 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 39 

stantiated, especially when other facts are taken into 
consideration. In fact, from an examination of the 
available data the general statement seems to be war- 
ranted that, while racial characteristics doubtless have 
some effect in determining the efficiency of immigrant 
workers in American industry, industrial opportunity 
appears to be the principal determinant. The more 
closely similar the language and previous industrial train- 
ing of the immigrants of any race, not to mention other 
factors, are to the language and industrial requirements 
in this country, the greater will be their industrial op- 
portunity. The longer they have been in this country 
the greater is their opportunity. Both factors are in- 
dicated in the statistics for all races of the older immi- 
gration as contrasted with races of the newer immigra- 
tion and were clearly indicated by the Immigration 
Commission's figures. The wages of immigrant workers 
are found to differ according to race also because there 
is often a predominance of the immigrants of a certain 
race in a given industry where wages are extraordinarily 
low; the average weekly wage rates for this race may 
thus appear lower than for another race whose racial 
characteristics are very similar. "One of the most 
striking facts indicated by a comparison of the earnings 
of races in the different industries is that earning ability 
is more the outcome of industrial opportunity or con- 
ditions of employment than of racial efficiency and 
progress," said the Immigration Commission. This 
fact becomes evident when the average weekly earnings 
of the members of a race or of several races in the cotton 



40 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

or woolen or worsted goods industry are compared with 
the earnings of the same race or races in other indus- 
tries. The Lithuanians, for example, were found to earn 
an average of $12.24 weekly in the manufacture of 
agricultural implements and vehicles; $11.60 in cloth- 
ing; $13.60 in copper mining and smelting; $9.87 in 
furniture; $12.89 i^ i^o^ ^^^ steel; $11.98 in iron ore 
mining; $9.50 in leather; $12.85 in oil refining; $10.87 
in shoes; $10.67 i^^ sugar refining, but only $7.86 in 
cotton and $7.97 in woolen and worsted goods manu- 
facturing.^ 

Wages in Various Industries. — Just as statements of 
average wages do not accurately portray real conditions, 
so statements of wages for a large number of industries 
do not give an adequate idea of a large proportion of 
workers whose economic status is thus hidden in gen- 
eral conclusions. As the accompanying table, compiled 
from the reports of the Immigration Commission, in- 
dicates, there are wide differences in the levels of wages 
in different industries. These differences are cor- 
roborated by the large number of special reports of 
recent investigations as shown in the table on p. 41. 

While in the majority of the principal industries of 
the country it has been found that a large proportion — 
from one-third to two-thirds, and in some cases an even 
greater proportion — of male employees earned weekly 
wages of between $10 and $15, there were also found 
noteworthy variations in the proportions earning above 
and below this range. One-third of the wage-earners, 

«s Reports, Vol. I, pp. 387-388, 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 



41 



PER CENT. OF MALE EMPLOYEES 18 YEARS AND OVER, EARNING 

UNDER SPECIFIED WEEKLY AMOUNTS AND OVER $25 PER 

WEEK, BY INDUSTRY AND GENERAL NATIVITY GROUPS 

(Compiled from Reports of the U. S. Immigration Commission, Vols. 19 and 20) 









Per cent 


earning 


Per cent. 




Total 




weekly 


amounts 


earning 




number 


Average 




-A ._^ 


more 


Industry 


employees 


weekly 


Under 


Under 


than $25 




included 


earnings 


$10 


$15 


per week 


Agricultural Im- 












plements . . . . 


21,104 


$13.09 


28 


68 


a 


Boots and shoes . . 


9.906 


12.11 


31 


70 


1 


Clothing . . . . 


9,339 


13.30 


23 


74 


2 


Copper mining and 












smelting . . . . 


6,797 


13.57 


8 


67 


1 


Cotton goods . . 


30,607 


9.68 


62 


74 


a 


Furniture 


3,157 


11.67 


30 


84 


a 


Glass: Bottles .. 


3,038 


15.73 


37 


79 


19 


Plate . . 


3,261 


12.07 


41 


56 


1 


Tableware 


1,858 


14.20 


30 


63 


6 


Window . . 


1,432 


15.11 


18 


59 


9 


Iron and steel 


77,280 


14.35 


23 


66 


6 


Iron ore mining. . 


7.748 


12.72 


16 


75 


a 


Leather 


10,912 


10.64 


44 


90 


a 


Oil refining . . 


2,942 


13.81 


27 


60 


2 


Silk dyeing . . . . 


1.003 


12.13 


3 


93 


a 


Silk goods . . . . 


3,077 


12.50 


28 


75 


1 


Sugar refining .. 


5,656 


11.82 


25 


85 


a 


Woolen and 












worsted . . . . 


20,846 


10.49 


52 


89 


a 


Nativity Groups 












Foreign-born 


139,610 


11.92 


36 


80 


2 


Native-born 


80,780 


13.89 


25 


65 


5 


Total . . . . 


220.390 


12.64 


32 


75 


3 



a Less than 1 per cent. 

taking all of the principal industries together, appeared 
to have been earning more than $15 a week; but it has 
been found that only in copper mining, plate glass, 
tableware, window glass, iron and steel manufactures 
and oil refining, did one-third of all the male em- 
ployees earn over $15 a week. On the other hand, in 



42 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

cotton goods and woolen and worsteds, over half of 
the male employees were found to be earning less than 
$io a week, while approximately a third of those in 
boots and shoes, furniture, glass bottle, tableware and 
plate glass, and leather manufactures, were working for 
less than $io a week. Perhaps a better way of pointing 
out the low-paid industries is to enumerate those which 
show the lowest percentages of workers earning over 
$15 a week. Thus it appears to be indicated that one- 
fourth or less than one-fourth of the male employees 
in iron ore mining, clothing, cotton goods, furniture, 
glass bottle, leather, silk dyeing and silk goods, and 
woolen and worsteds manufactures, have been earning 
over $15 a week during the last few years. The small- 
est proportion of male workers in this class was found 
in silk dyeing and silk goods manufactures, woolen and 
worsteds, furniture and leather manufactures. In some 
industries, notably plate glass manufacturing, for in- 
stance, there were found large numbers of workers with 
low and high ranges of wages, with a relatively high 
average for all. This was due to the fact that in these 
industries there were considerable proportions of highly 
skilled workers as well as large proportions of very 
unskilled workers. 

The recent Ohio report on wages, to which reference 
has already been made, affords statistics in detail as to 
rates of weekly wages in the various industries and 
groups of industries within that state. The following 
tabulation presents a compilation from the Ohio statis- 
tics showing the percentages of adult rnale wage-earners 



IN "AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 



43 



earning specified wage rates in various large industry 
groups : 

RATE OF WAGES OF ADULT MALE WAGE-EARNERS IN OHIO, 
IN 1914, BY GROUPS OF INDUSTRIES" 

Per cent, working at each 



Industry 
Groups 



Number 
of estab- 
lishments 
reporting 



Total number 
of wage- 
earners 

60,529 

436,802 

14,112 

23,687 

35,047 



classified rate of weekly 
wage 



Under 
$18 

6 
12 
29 
12 

5 



Under 
$15 

52 

57 
59 
64 

53 



Under 
$10 

65 
76 

80 
84 

79 



Construction a . . 2,291 

Manufacturers . . 6,919 

Serviced 1,115 

Trade 3,436 

Transportation and 

public utilities . . 807 

a Including principally workers in building trades. 

h Including employees in amusement parks, barber shops, garages, hospitals, 
hotels, laundries and dry-cleaijing establishments, office buildings, restaurants, 
saloons, and theaters. 

Weekly Wages of Female Workers 

There is ample ground for the conclusion that from 
two-thirds to three- fourths of women workers in fac- 
tories, stores, laundries, and in industrial wage-earning 
occupations generally, work at wages under $8 a week. 
Since practically all findings of minimum wage com- 
missions and boards in the United States and the esti- 
mates of investigators agree that the independent woman 
worker can not live decently and without detriment to 
her health on less than $8 a week, this fact has been 
given a great deal of emphasis during recent years. 

In the last few years a large mass of data has been 
obtained on women's wages. Unfortunately the methods 
of presentation are not always uniform and it is difficult 

•Compiled from Bulletin of the Industrial Commission of Ohio: Rates of 
Wages, Hours of Labor, and Fluctuation of Employment in Ohio in 1914, pp. 
47-68. 



44 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

to draw exact conclusions. The data from the more 
comprehensive recent investigations may be summarized 
briefly, however, in order to depict wage conditions for 
women workers generally, before presenting in a de- 
tailed way the results of investigations of the different 
industries in which women are employed. 

For approximately 100,000 women workers 16 years 
of age and over, the Federal Woman and Child Wage- 
Earners investigation found that 18.6 per cent, received 
under $4 a week, about 49 per cent, received less than 
$6, and nearly yy per cent, received under $8. The 
results of the Federal census of manufactures in 1905 
were strikingly similar for a much larger number of 
women workers. Of 588,000 women workers 15 years 
of age and over, the Census found that 18.4 per cent, 
were receiving under $4 a week, 49.8 per cent, under 
$6, and 77.9 per cent, under $8. 

The Federal Immigration Commission's investigation 
of 57,712 women workers 18 years of age and over 
presented its data in slightly different terms. It found 
that about 5 per cent, were earning less than $5 a week, 

45 per cent, under $7.50 and 82 per cent, under $10. The 
large majority of the women included in this investiga- 
tion, however, were employed in the cotton goods and 
woolen and worsted manufacturing industries. 

Two state reports for 19 13 and one for 19 14 afford 
statistics for women workers in all industries in the 
respective states. The New Jersey report for 87,527 
workers 16 years of age and over showed that 4 per 
cent, were working for less than $4 a week, 28 per cent. 



IN "AMERICAN INDUSTRIES' 43 

for less than $6, 62 per cent, for less than $8, and 84 
per cent, for less than $10 a week. The Massachusetts 
report for 189,743 women workers 18 years of age and 
over showed that about i per cent, were working for 
less than $4 a week, 10 per cent, for less than $6, 40 
per cent, for less than $8, and 70 per cent, for less than 
$10 a week. The Ohio report for 96,181 female wage- 
earners 18 years of age and over showed that 8 per 
cent, were working for less than $5 a week, and 21.4 
per cent, for less than $6, 58.4 for less than $8, and 
82.4 per cent, for less than $10 a week. The Ohio 
statistics are presented in the following tabulation: 

CLASSIFIED RATES OF WAGES OF FEMALE WAGE-EARNERS 
18 YEARS OF AGE OR OVER ' 

Number of adult 
„ „, „, female wage-earners Per cent. 

Rate of Wages per Week ^^ ^^^^ classified distribution 

rate 

Less than $4 2,629 2.7 

$ 4 but under $ 5 5,085 5.3 

5 but under 6 12,878 13.4 

6 but under 7 18,405 19.1 

7 but under 8 17,178 17.9 

8 but under 9 12,787 13.3 

9 but under 10 10,314 10.7 

10 but under 12 10,094 10.5 

12 but under 15 4,822 5.0 

15 but under 18 1,330 1.4 

18 or over 659 .7 

Total .. 96,181 100.0 

The California Industrial Welfare Commission's first 
biennial report (for 1913 and 1914) contains wage data 
for 22,972 women workers 18 years of age and over 

'Bulletin of the Industrial Commission of Ohio: Rates of Wages, Hours of 
Labor, and Fluctuation in Employment in Ohio in 1914, p. 9. Fred C. Crox- 
ton, chief statistician, and Edith M. Miller, assistant statistician. 



46 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

in the principal occupations and industries in that state, 
which showed that 21.3 per cent, received under $8 
per week and 49.1 per cent, under $10, while 28.5 per 
cent, received $12 and over. The report of the Michigan 
State Commission of Inquiry (published in January, 
1915) showed that according to reports from employers 
for 50,351 women workers, 21.7 per cent, received less 
than $6, 51.4 per cent, received less than $8, and 73.9 
per cent, received less than $10 per week. 

The Massachusetts Minimum Wage Commission's 
investigations of cotton, confectionery, laundry and 
store workers included about 12,000 women 18 years of 
age and over, and showed that about 10 per cent, re- 
ceived less than $4 a week, 39 per cent, less than $6, 
and about 69 per cent, less than $8 a week. 

The Minnesota Minimum Wage Commission's in- 
vestigation of 13,362 women workers in St. Paul and 
Minneapolis factories, stores, laundries, etc., showed that 
3 per cent, were earning less than $5 a week, 12 per 
cent, less than $6, 42 per cent, less than $8, and 67 
per cent, less than $10 — giving evidence of a some- 
what higher wage level than in Eastern cities. The 
Oregon Social Welfare Committee's investigation of 
women workers in Portland showed that about 60 
per cent, were earning less than $10 a week. On the 
other hand, the Kentucky Commission found that 27 
per cent, of women workers were working for wages of 
less than $4 a week and 6y per cent, for less than $6 
a week. 

The recent investigations of women workers in retail 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 47 

stores, shirt, confectionery, and paper box factories in 
the state of New York, conducted by the New York 
State Factory Investigating Commission, showed that 
approximately 17 per cent, were earning less than $5 a 
week, and about 75 per cent, less than $10 a week. This 
investigation secured data from about 42,000 women 
workers. 

While as a general rule the wage investigations state 
actual earnings . in a representative week, and the 
minimum wage commissions give rates of wages, the 
data are roughly comparable when the general fact is 
taken into consideration that women workers have been 
found, so far as available information shows,* to lose 
about 10 per cent, of their full time weekly wages. This 
does not include weeks lost during the year, however, 
and the evidence appears to indicate that, on the whole, 
regularly employed women workers lose from 25 to 30 
per cent, of their working time during the year, as will 
be shown in another part of this report. 

Differences in Women's Wages According to In- 
dustry. — Women's wage statistics show far greater dif- 
ferences according to localities than do men's wage 
statistics, largely because of the fact that the supply of 
women workers is less mobile and varies in size accord- 
ing to locality. Where the wage-earning population is 
large and the wage level for male workers is low, the 
supply is usually considerably greater than the demand 
because of the necessity for the entrance of women into 

8 C. E. Persons: Women's Work and Wages, Quarterly Journal of Eco- 
nomics, February, 1915, p, 212. 



48 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

industry in order to supplement the wages of heads of 
families. The wage-level of women workers will also 
be found to be low in these localities. Hence women's 
wages in the same industry often exhibit wide variations 
in reports of investigations made in different localities 
and sections of the country. 

The Federal Bureau of Labor's Report on Woman 
and Child Wage-Earners, conducted in 1907, 1908, and 
1909, affords the most comprehensive wage statistics 
for women wage-workers for the country as a whole. 
This investigation centered on four industries — cotton, 
men's clothing, glass and silk manufacturing — in which 
large numbers of women were employed. The statistics 
are for actual weekly earnings and include women 16 
years of age and over. For the four industries named 
the statistics have been summarized as follows : 

PER CENT. OF WOMEN 16 YEARS OF AGE AND OVER EARNING 
UNDER $6 AND UNDER $8 IN A REPRESENTATIVE WEEK 

Per cent, earning 

Industry Total f '^ ^ 

Number Under $6 Under $8 
Cotton : 

New England 13,744 38.0 67.4 

Southern 12,654 68.0 92.5 

Men's ready-made clothing . . . . 10,149 49.0 73.1 

Glass 2,774 63.9 91.2 

Silk 8,596 45.4 71.1 

In a group of 1,655 women reporting earnings in 
department and other retail stores in seven of the prin- 
cipal cities, the average weekly earnings of 30.8 per 
cent, were found to be under $6, and of 66.2 per cent, 
under $8. A study of the pay-rolls of department and 
other retail stores in New York, Chicago, and Phila- 



IN 'AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 49 

delphia, including nearly 36,000 female employees, 
showed that the weekly rates of pay of 26.4 per cent. 
fell below $6, and of 57.5 per cent, below $8. In a 
group of 4,160 women employed in mills and factories 
in seven of the principal cities the average weekly earn- 
ings of 40.1 per cent, fell below $6, and of 74.3 per 
cent, below $8.^ 

In another section of the investigation, where the 
earnings of over 38,000 women 18 years of age and 
over in 2^ industries were secured, the story of low 
wages which the pay-roll figures tell is equally striking. 
The per cent, of women earning under $6 and under $8 
in a representative week in each of these 23 industries 
is shown in the table on p. 50. 

The California Industrial Welfare Commission's first 
biennial report (for 19 13 and 19 14) presented wage 
statistics for nearly 23,000 women wage-earners 18 
years and over in a number of specified industries in 
San Francisco, Los Angeles, Oakland, Sacramento, and 
San Diego, which are briefly summarized in the table at 
top of p. 51. 

Somewhat similar statistics are afforded by the Michi- 
gan Commission of Inquiry for women wage- workers 
in a number of industries. Reports as to wages were 
received from 8,358 women in 18 different occupations, 
and are summarized in the tabulation at bottom of p. 51. 

Generally speaking, more than the average percentage 
of women workers earning less than $4 a week has 

9 Vol. V, Wage-Earning Women In Stores and Factories, pp. 41, 45, and 
46. 



50 



CONDITIONS OF LABOR 



PER CENT. OF WOMEN 18 YEARS OF AGE AND OVER EARNING 

UNDER $6 AND UNDER $8 IN A REPRESENTATIVE WEEK, 

BY INDUSTRIES 10 



Industry Number 

Canning and preserving, fruits and 

vegetables 449 

Canning and preserving, oysters . . 155 

Cans and boxes, tin 225 

Cigar boxes 335 

Cigarets 1,071 

Cigars 5,994 

Clocks and watches 696 

Confectionery 1,948 

Core making 307 

Corsets 2,789 

Crackers and biscuits 1,273 

Hardware, etc 803 

Hosiery and knit goods 7,251 

Jewelry 129 

Needles and pins 427 

Nuts, bolts, and screws 433 

Paper boxes 2,213 

Pottery 503 

Rubber and elastic goods 233 

Shirts, overalls, etc 2,371 

Stamped and enameled ware . . . . 992 

Tobacco and snuff 3,670 

Woolen and worsted goods . . . . 3,915 

Total 38,182 



Per cent. 


earning 


Under $6 


Under $8 


59.2 


93.5 


99.4 


100.0 


50.2 


79.5 


61.8 


84.5 


33.1 


75.4 


39.3 


71.3 


33.5 


72.3 


55.6 


81.3 


22.1 


61.9 


29.7 


58.9 


54.0 


82.0 


57.9 


88.2 


31.7 


64.0 


31.8 


67.4 


27.2 


61.6 


61.7 


92.1 


40.1 


74.5 


45.5 


65.8 


28.8 


56.7 


55.5 


89.9 


45.0 


72.7 


55.6 


79.7 


29.7 


68.9 



41.1 



72.7 



been found in box manufacturing, flower making, can- 
ning, cigar and tobacco, glass and leather manufactur- 
ing, and in book making. With the exception of a 
very few localities, there are few well-paid women 
workers in any industry, if $io a week be taken as 
high wages for women, altho the recent minimum wage 
determinations have largely eliminated wage rates under 



*• Vol. XVIII, Employment of Women and Children in Selected Indus- 
tries, p. 23. 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 



51 



PER CENT. OF WOIMEN 18 YEARS OF AGE AND OVER IN CERTAIN 

INDUSTRIES IN FIVE PRINCIPAL INDUSTRIAL CENTERS 

IN CALIFORNIA RECEIVING SPECIFIED WEEKLY 

WAGE RATES 



Industry 



Mercantile 

Retail candy . 

Millinery 

5, 10, and 15 cent stores 

Laundries 

Dyeing and cleaning . . . 
Telephone companies . . . 
Telegraph companies 
Manufacturing industries : 

Candy and biscuits . . . 

Foods and drugs 

Printing and bookbinding. 

Paper boxes 

Cigars and cigarets .. . 

Knit goods 



Total manufacturing industries 





Per cent. 


receiving 


Number wage- 


weekly 


wages 


earners 


under 


reported 






$8 


$9 


9,011 


18.0 


31.5 


759 


9.6 


35.7 


810 


27.3 


37.9 


215 


87.0 


90.7 


3,765 


26.6 


48.4 


522 


10.5 


21.8 


3,962 


12.8 


19.2 


372 


8.3 


14.8 


926 


42.4 


50.7 


1,012 


19.4 


33.9 


631 


14.7 


28.1 


342 


59.4 


69.6 


386 


42.1 


53.8 


259 


44.8 


54.8 








3,556 


41.2 


52.9 



Total, all industries 



22.972 



21.2, 



35.0 



NUMBER AND PER CENT. OF WAGE-EARNING WOMEN IN MICHI- 
GAN REPORTING EARNINGS UNDER $8 AND UNDER $9 
PER WEEK, BY OCCUPATIONS 

Under $8 per week Under $9 per week Total 



Occupation 

Candy .. 

Cigars 

Cores 

Corsets 

Hosiery and knit goods 

Laundries 

Offices 

Overalls 

Paper and cigar boxes 
Seeds .. .. .. .. 

Stores 

Telephone exchanges 

Tobacco 

Women's garments . . 
Other occupations a . . 



Number 

226 
334 

34 
472 
301 
505 
141 
205 
269 
191 
1,221 
336 

88 
291 

35 



Per cent. 

77 
42 
34 
57 
67 
70 
36 
31 
77 
90 
58 
71 
54 
48 
64 



Number 

268 

423 
50 

640 

371 

609 

197 

309 

313 

201 
1,476 

388 

115 

366 
41 



Per cent. 

90 
53 
50 
77 
82 
84 
50 
46 
89 
95 
70 
82 
71 
61 
75 



Total 4,649 56 5,767 69 

a Shoes, woolen goods, fiber works, and metal specialties. 



,j number 
reporting 

296 
807 

99 
835 
462 
746 
396 
685 
360 
212 
2,148 
474 
162 
621 

55 

8,358 



52 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

$8 and $9 in several industries in those states where 
a minimum wage for women has been provided by 
law. 

In the tables on pp. 53-57 is presented a compilation of 
statistics from recent official sources showing the pro- 
portion of female workers earning under specified 
amounts weekly. Some of these data represent actual 
earnings ; others, full time weekly rates of pay.^^ 



11 The foregoing statistics were compiled from the following reports and 
publications. The age limits used in the statistics are indicated below: 

Census — Report on manufactures, 1905. (16 years and over.) 

Connecticut — Bureau of labor: Report on the conditions of wage-earning 
women and girls, 1914. 

Consumers' League of Eastern Pennsylvania. Pamphlet No. 3. Bookbind- 
ing. 1914. 

Illinois — Bureau of labor statistics: Investigation of women in department 
stores, 1908. (Women.) 

Kentucky — Commission tO' investigate the conditions of working women in 
Kentucky: Report, December, 1911. (Women.) 

Massachusetts — Bureau of statistics: Annual report on the statistics of man- 
ufactures for the year 1913. (18 years and over.) 

Massachusetts— -Minimum wage commission: Annual reports, 1913, 1914. 
(16 years and over.) 

Minnesota — Department of labor: Report 1913-14. 

Minnesota — Minimum wage commission: First biennial report, August 1, 
1913 to December 31, 1914. 

Missouri — State wage commission, 1915. (Women and children.) 

Ohio — Industrial commission: Wages and hours of labor of women and 
girls employed in mercantile establishments in Ohio in 1913. (18 years and 
over.) 

Oregon — Report of the Social Survey Committee of the Consumers* League 
of Oregon on the wages, hours and conditions of work and cost and standard 
of living of women wage-earners in Oregon with special reference to Portland. 
1913. (Women.) 

Strike of textile workers in Lawrence, Mass., in 1912. 62d Cong., 2d Sess., 
Senate Doc. No. 870. (18 years and over.) 

U. S. Bureau of labor statistics: Wages, etc., in the dress and waist in- 
dustry in New York City, 1913. (Women.) 

U. S. Immigration Commission: Reports. (18 years and over.) 

Van Kleeck. Artificial flower-making. 1913; women in the bookbinding 
trade, 1913. 

Woman and Child wage-earners in the United States, 1910. 61st Cong., 
2d Sess., Senate Doc. No. 645. (18 years and over.) 

Woolston, H. B. Wages in New York. (Results of New York factory 
investigating commission.) Survey, February 6, 1915. 



IN 'AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 



53 



WEEKLY WAGES OF FEMALE EMPLOYEES 



Industry 



Number 



Artificial flower-making: 

Artificial flower-makers — ^Van Kleeck 171 

Census report, 1905 1,845 

Boots and shoes: 

New Jersey report 1,577 

Massachusetts report 29,201 

Washington Indust. Welfare Comm. 34 

Census report, 1905 30,195 

Immigration Commission: 

14 years and under 18 1,392 

18 years and over 4,406 

Boxes : 

New Jersey report 1,444 

Massachusetts report — Fancy . . . . 2,404 

Wooden packing 322 

Kansas report: 

Boxes and barrels 29 

New York Factory Investigating 

Commission, 1914 5,444 

Census report, 1905: 

Cigar 1,404 

Fancy and paper 10,936 

Wooden packing 819 

Washington Indust. Welfare Comm. 91 

Woman and child wage-earners: 

Cigars 335 

Paper 2,213 

Brushes: 

New Jersey report 150 

Massachusetts report 700 

Kansas report 24 

Mass. Min. Wage Commission . . 446 

Canneries: 

Massachusetts report 490 

Kansas report: 

Canning, preserving, cider and 

vinegar works 98 

Washington Indust. Welfare Comm. : 

Fruit 288 

Fish 1,166 

Woman and child wage-earners: 

Fruits and vegetables 449 

Oysters 155 

Census report, 1905: 

Fish 2,237 

Fruits and vegetables 21,651 

Oysters 72 



Per cent, earning under 
specified amounts 

A 


$4 


$6 


$8 


$10 


25.*3 


35.1 
55.3 


67.8 
73.8 


83.6 
87.2 


5.2 

0.7 

0.0 

11.4 


26.6 
5.0 
0.0 

32.3 


54.8 
20.0 
11.8 
56.9 


76.9 
43.4 
73.5 
77.3 


.... 


.... 


.... 


97.8 
Z8.3 


7.8 
2.0 
1.6 


40.0 
18.4 
21.7 


70.2 
47.7 
44.4 


93.0 
75.2 
73.3 



8.8 



27.5 



38.1 



17.3 



72.4 96.6 



64.2 



1.0 31.8 95.1 



85.4 



24.7 
26.3 
25.4 


58.2 
61.0 
55.5 
16.5 


83.1 
85.3 
82.3 
48.4 


95.4 
95.4 
93.0 


21.5 
10.0 


61.8 
40.1 


84.5 
74.5 


96.1 
92.4 


10.0 
12.S 


46.7 

25.4 

4.2 

60.8 


79.3 
66.6 
83.3 
88.8 


94.0 

87.7 

100.0 



98.4 



38.8 46.9 



.... 


10.1 
0.7 


26.4 
6.0 


86.5 
19.1 


5.8 
56.1 


59.2 
99.4 


93.5 
100.0 


98.9 
100.0 


10.0 
28.6 
40.3 


23.9 
62.3 
93.0 


47.2 

84.5 

100.0 


72.6 

92.4 

lOO.Q 



$4 


$6 


$8 


$10 


40.6 


72.4 


93.4 


98.2 


14.1 


48.7 


77.1 


84.0 


38.6 


50.0 


71.4 


88.6 


12.7 

9.6 

31.1 


39.3 
33.1 
55.6 


71.3 
75.4 
79.7 


87.6 
92.9 
90.4 


56.0 


81.1 


91.7 


96.3 


67.6 


87.3 


94.1 


98.0 



54 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 



WEEKLY WAGES OF FEMALE EMPLOYEES— Confinited 

Per cent, earning under 
Industry Number specified amounts 



Cigars and tobacco: 

New Jersey report 9,477 

Massachusetts report: 

Tobacco manufacturers 1,264 

Kansas report: 

Cigar factories 70 

Women and child wage-earners: 

Cigars 5,994 

Cigarettes 1,071 

Tobacco and snuff 3,670 

Census report, 1905: 

Cigars and cigarets 34,374 

Tobacco, chewing, smoking and 

snuff 5,901 

Clothing: 

New Jersey report 839 4.2 23.6 55.9 91.7 

Massachusetts report: 

Men's clothing 3,642 

Women's clothing 5,079 

Kansas report — Garment factories. . 379 

Minn. Min. Wage Comm., 1914 . . 2,367 

Missouri Senate Wage Comm., 1915. 1,569 

Washington Indust. Welfare Comm. 180 
Women and child wage-earners: 

1910 — 18 years and over .. .. 2,371 

1911 — 16 years and over .. .. 10,149 
Wages, etc., in dress and waist in- 
dustry in New York City, 1913 : 

Week-workers 6,840 

Piece-workers 7,153 

Census report, 1905 : 

Men's clothing 27,485 

Women's clothing 26,735 

Immigration Comm. — ■14-18 years . . 1,819 

18 years and over 6,186 

Confectionery: 

New Jersey report 608 

Massachusetts report 4,709 

Kansas report 238 

Mass. Min. Wage Comm., 1914 .. 3,326 
New York Factory Investigating 

Commission, 1914 4,733 

Washington Indust. Welfare Comm. 400 

Woman and child wage-earners .. 1,948 

Census report, 1905 11,831 

Corsets : 

New Jersey report 2,634 

Massachusetts report 2,360 

Mass. Min. Wage Comm., 1914. .. 2,110 

Woman and child wage-earners . . 2,787 

Census report, 1905 4,718 



1.9 


13.5 


42.8 


74.0 


1.1 


13.6 


39.6 


66.8 


15.3 


66.8 


93.1 


98.7 


1.1 


15.0 


27.6 


41.2 


19.6 


39.6 


61.2 


83.0 


.... 


2.7 


17.2 


50.0 


14.2 


56.5 


80.9 


93.3 


20.1 


49.0 


73.1 


83.0 


0.2 


5.3 


21.1 


39.3 


3.4 


6.7 


12.3 


21.8 


18.6 


49.5 


78.8 


92.8 


14.5 


39.6 


67.8 


85.7 








96.4 


.... 


.... 


.... 


76.5 


6.9 


66.9 


93.3 


97.5 


0.3 


31.5 


71.2 


93.4 


7.1 


47.0 


76.9 


90.3 


23.1 


69.6 


92.1 


97.5 


12.3 


54.6 


80.5 


90.6 




15.8 


55.3 


77.3 


16.2 


55.6 


81.3 


92.0 


36.0 


74.8 


92.9 


97.7 


3.7 


20.9 


49.1 


74.3 


1.4 


21.9 


49.9 


80.5 


9.6 


35.5 


68.7 




10.0 


29.7 


58.9 


85.3 


18.6 


41.8 


70.9 


90.1 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 



55 



WEEKLY WAGES OF FEMALE EMPLOYEES— Con*tn«^d 



Industry 



Number 



Cotton goods: 
New Jersey report: 

Cotton goods 4,444 

Finishing and dyeing 817 

Massachusetts report: 

Cotton goods 48,264 

Cotton small wares 453 

Woman and child wage-earners . . 6,492 

Report on Lawrence Strike, 1912 . . 2,282 

Census report, 1905 494,118 

Immigration Commission : 

14 years and under 18 4,324 

18 years and over 25,324 

Furniture: 

Massachusetts report 774 

Census report, 1905 1,911 

Glass: 
New Jersey report: 

Cut tableware 73 

Mirrors 22 

Window glass and bottles . . . . 184 
Massachusetts report: 

Glass cutting, staining and orna- 
menting 9 

Kansas report: 

Glass factories 55 

Woman and child wage-earners . . 3,255 

Census report, 1905 1,721 

Immigration Comm. — 14-18 years . . 270 

18 years and over 382 

Hosiery and knit goods: 

New Jersey report 2,143 

Massachusetts report 7,192 

Woman and child wage-earners . . 7,251 

Census report, 1905 . . 29,502 

Leather: 

New Jersey report: 

Leather '. 122 

Leather goods 327 

Massachusetts report: 

Tanned, curried and finished . . 171 

Leather goods 362 

Census report, 1905: 

Tanned, curried and finished . . 1,306 

Leather goods 887 

Immigration Commission: 

14 years and under 18 182 

16 years and over 712 



Per cent, earning under 
specified amounts 



r 
$4 


$6 


$8 


$10 


5.8 
1.2 


35.2 
52.6 


72.1 
92.9 


93.0 
94.9 


0.5 
1.8 

13.4 
4.5 

16.7 


8.4 
16.1 
32.0 
16.2 
48.0 


37.7 
55.6 
54.3 
50.6 
80.0 


75.6 
82.6 
71.8 
91.8 
95.9 


.'..*! 


.... 


.... 


97.2 
87.1 


2.2 
27.9 


15.5 
S9.6 


43.5 
84.2 


82.2 
93.9 


1.4 
*i!6 


38.4 
54.5 
65.2 


72.6 
95.5 
95.1 


94.5 
100.0 
97.8 



55.6 



88.9 



21. "5 
31.6 


21.8 
64.3 
71.3 


98.2 
88.6 
89.7 


96.1 

96.1 

100.0 

96.6 


5.1 

2.1 

7.7 

17.5 


22.3 
23.7 
31.7 
48.2 


53.0 
53.4 
64.0 
80.1 


79.4 
84.3 
84.6 
94.9 


7.4 
27.5 


40.2 
62.1 


77.0 
85.9 


91.0 
92.7 


0.6 


14.0 
21.3 


48.0 
58.8 


94.2 
82.6 


9.0 
21.5 


53.1 
56.8 


98.2 
84.1 


99.4 
92.9 


.... 


.... 


.... 


100.0 
96.1 



56 



CONDITIONS OF LABOR 



WEEKLY WAGES OF FEMALE EMPLOYEES— Confinw^d 

Per cent, earning under 
Industry Number specified amounts 



$4 $6 $8 $10 

Laundries: 

Kentucky Commission to Investi- 
gate Conditions of Working 

women, 1911 

Mass. Min. Wage Comm., 1914 .. 2,961 8.2 51.5 68.8 82.2 



492 


24.0 


2,961 


8.2 


140 


, ,., 


2,304 


.... 



Oregon Social Survey Committee .. 140 47.7 92.6 

Washington Indust. Welfare Comm. 2,304 .... 5.2 39.2 72.4 

Mercantile establishments: 

Connecticut, Bureau of Labor. . .. 544 0.6 76.6 93.4 97.2 

Illinois, Bureau of Labor Statistics, 
"nvestigation of Women in 

department Stores, 1908 .. 2,556 .... 10.3 31.5 49.5 
Kentucky Commission to Investigate 
Conditions of Working Wom- 

.n, 1911 1,601 30.0 

Mass. Min. Wage Comm., 1914 .. 854 7.4 21.8 53.7 75.5 

Minn. Min. Wage Comm., 1914 .. 5,299 0.9 14.9 46.9 69.7 

Ohio Industrial Comm.. 1913 . . .. 14,635 3.5 21.4 51.9 71.8 

Oregon Social Survey Committee . . 2,078 0.1 9.2 31,1 58.2 

Washington Indust. Welfare Comm. : 

Mercantile establishments . . . . 4,544 0.6 2.2 10.7 13.6 

Five and ten cent stores . . .... 104 .... 45.2 90.4 100.0 

New York Factory Investigating 
Commission, 1914: 

Large department stores .... .... 53.0 .... 

Small neighborhood shops .... .... 68.0 .... 

Five and ten cent stores 99.0 .... 

Paper and wood pulp: 

New Jersey report 408 0.5 36.8 86.0 95.8 

Massachusetts report 4,438 0.8 6.2 60.1 94.2 

Kansas report .. 26 3.8 42.3 84.6 88.5 

Massachusetts, Bureau of Statistics, 

wages and hours in the paper 

and wood pulp industry, 1914 4,463 5.3 22.5 69.6 95.4 

Census report, 1905 6,377 7.9 43.2 92.5 99.1 

Pottery: 

Women and child wage-earners .. 503 16.5 45.5 65.8 83.1 

Census report, 1905 1,928 21.3 65.5 86.7 93.3 

Printing and bookbinding: 

New Jersey report 565 8.8 29.4 60.9 67.1 

Massachusetts report 2,019 0.6 6.0 33.0 55.4 

Kansas report 933 5.6 18.1 67.2 76.6 

Consumers' League of Eastern Penn- 
sylvania, Pamphlet No. 3, 1914 149 15.4 37.6 68.5 92.6 

Oregon Social Survey Committee.. 57 26.3 56.1 

Washington Indust. Welfare Comm. 68 .... 0.0 7.4 16.2 
Women in the bookbinding trade, 

Von Kleeck, 1913 193 41.9 88.6 

Census report, 1905 4,717 15.8 48.7 80.0 93.4 



Per cent, earning under 
specified amounts 


^4 


$6 


$8 


$10 


2.8 
4.8 
2.8 
1.7 
19.1 


15.9 
15.3 
13.8 
9.3 
52.1 


43.2 
82.9 
84.1 
24.2 
78.2 


69.7 
96.1 
95.5 
53.3 
92.0 


•••• 


.... 


.... 


96.9 
Z6.4 


'o.'o 


9.2 
7.1 


58.4 
75.7 


100.0 
100.0 



IN 'AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 57 

WEEKLY WAGES OF FEMALE EMPLOYEES— Continued 

Industry Number 



Silk: 
New Jersey report: 

Silk — broad and ribbon .. .. 11,760 

Silk dyeing 968 

Silk throwing 940 

Massachusetts report 2,728 

Census report, 1905 17,763 

Immigration Commission: 

14 years and under 18 3,465 

18 years and over 4,837 

Telephones: 

Consumers' League of Eastern Penn- 
sylvania, 1913: 

Exchange No. 1 130 

Exchange No. 2 70 

Kentucky Commission to Investigate 
Conditions of Working Wom- 
en in Kentucky, 1911 .. .. 597 36.9 

Oregon Social Survey Committee .. 52 .... .... 26.8 SO.O 

Washington Indust. Welfare Comm,: 

1913 1,040 

1914 1,091 

Woolen and worsted: 

New Jersey 7,712 

Massachusetts report 20,119 

Strike of textile workers in Lawrence, 

1912 6,038 

Women and child wage-earners . . 3,915 
Census report, 1905: 

Woolen goods 14,515 

Worsted goods .. 20,138 

Immigration Commission: 

14 years and under 18 3,092 

18 years and over 13,789 

The Difference in Wages of Men and Women 
Workers 

The foregoing wage statistics clearly show a wide 
difference between the w^age rates at which male wage- 
earners work and the wage rates at which female wage- 
earners work. This difference is seen not only for 
industries as a whole, but within almost every industry 
in which men and women are employed. 



... 




30.1 
16.8 


74.8 
66.5 


0.9 
0.1 


27.3 
3.8 


71.3 
40.9 


89.5 
70.5 


5.3 
6.0 


16.2 
29.7 


64.9 
68.9 


84.3 
87.7 


9.4 
5.8 


37.9 
42.2 


68.1 
74.8 


87.3 
89.0 




.... 


.... 


97.0 
75.9 



58 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

The outstanding fact in connection with this matter 
appears to be that, in nearly all low-paid industries, 
where occupations are such as to permit the doing of 
work by women, the proportion of women is great. 
The textile and glass industries are obvious examples 
of this condition. How far this is due solely to the 
willingness of women to work for less wages than men 
can not, of course, be stated. More importance, it is 
believed, should be assigned to a condition which ap- 
pears to be more clear-cut and prevalent. It is this: 
in low-paid industries male workers are f reqitently unable 
to earn sufficient income to support their families, and 
their wages must be supplemented by wages earned by 
their wives and daughters. Wherever, as a general rule, 
these industries offer to women opportunities for employ- 
ment, the presence of women wage-earners is typical. 
Even where these industries do not offer opportunities 
for employment to women, the necessity for additional 
income in the families of wage-earners forces their 
wives and daughters into other industries in the same 
localities where the opportunity for female employment 
exists. 

Aside from the potency of what appears to be the 
fundamental cause of the employment of women in 
industrial occupations, the significant fact has been 
brought out in detailed studies of different occupations 
in the same industries that, in practically every industry 
studied, men's wages ranged higher than women's, 
and the proportion earning fair or good wages was 
very much larger among the men than among the 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 59 

women. The extensive federal investigation of woman 
and child wage-earners brought out this condition very 
clearly, as subsequent studies in specific industries and 
localities have done. The Woman and Child Wage- 
Earners* report showed that the higher wages of men 
were due, in very large degree, to a difference in the 
work done by men and women; to a less degree, it 
seemed due to a difference in strength, swiftness, or 
skill when they were doing the same work ; and in a 
very few instances, so few as to be negligible, it seemed 
due to no other cause than that the women were willing 
to do the work for less and therefore were employed. 
The first cause, in difference in the kind of work 
done, was especially noticeable in the group of mis- 
cellaneous factory industries studied. In industry after 
industry a clear-cut division of work between the sexes 
was found. Ordinarily the occupations involving skill, 
training, and responsibility were in the hands of the 
men, while the work of the women was apt to be at 
best only semi-skilled, and in many cases was purely 
mechanical. Under these circumstances the difference 
in the earnings of the sexes was very marked. Thus, of 
31,288 male workers 18 years of age and over engaged 
in these industries, well over one-half (56.5 per cent.) 
earned $10 or more a week, while of the 38,182 female 
workers in the same age group employed in these in- 
dustries, only one-tenth (10.5 per cent.) earned as much 
or more than $10. Two-fifths of the women (41. i 
per cent), as against 9.5 per cent, of the men, earned 
under $6 a week. 



6o CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

Even when men and women were nominally engaged 
in the same occupation there was frequently a difference 
in the kind and quality of work undertaken by them. 
Thus, in gilding pottery, the simplest form, lining, is done 
almost wholly by women, while the more difficult form, 
filling in designs, is done by both sexes. The report says : 

"But there is no competition between them, as the 
men do the artistic work which requires long pre- 
liminary training, while the women do those parts which 
may be learned in a few months. The men receive 
higher wages and are said to be displacing the women, 
partly because they do better work and partly because 
they can move their ware about without assistance.^^ 

When men and women were engaged in exactly the 
same work under the same circumstances it was apt to 
be at piece rates. Under these circumstances the differ- 
ence in earnings was usually less and sometimes was in 
favor of the female workers. Thus, in the New Eng- 
land cotton mills the average earnings per hour of male 
weavers i6 years of age and over were 17 cents, while 
for female weavers in the same age group they were 
15.4 cents. Male ring spinners 16 years of age and 
over averaged 11.6 cents per hour, while female ring 
spinners averaged 12.6 cents per hour. When in such 
occupations men made higher earnings it seemed to be 
due sometimes to their greater strength which enabled 
them to handle their machines to better advantage, 

12 Woman and Child Wage-earners: Vol. XVIII, Employment of Women 
and Children in Selected Industries, p. 268. See the excellent summary of the 
Woman and Child Wage-earners' report published by the U. S. Bureau of 
Labor Statistics (Bulletin 175), from which much of the above paragraphs 
has been taken. (See especially pp. 23 and 24.) 



3 



IN "AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 6i 

sometimes to an ability to work at greater speed, and 
sometimes to greater skill or longer experience. 

Annual Earnings of Wage-Workers 

An examination of all authoritative data on annual 
earnings of workers during recent years appears to in- 
dicate that the following are warrantable conclusions : 

1. That fully one- fourth of the adult male workers 
in the principal industries and trades, who are heads of 
families, earned less than $400, one-half less than $600, 
four-fifths less than $800, and less than one-tenth 
earned as much as $1,000 a year. 

2. That fully a third of all male workers 18 years of 
age and over in the principal industries and trades, 
whether heads of families or not, earned less than $400, 
two-thirds earned less than $600, and about one-twen- 
tieth earned over $1,000 a year. 

3. That approximately a fourth of women workers 
18 years of age and over who are regularly employed 
in the principal manufacturing industries earned less 
than $200, and two-thirds earned less than $400 a year. 

The sources of information for annual earnings of 
workers in the principal industries and trades are un- 
fortunately limited, and the exactness of the above state- 
ments is subject to qualification. The Federal Immi- 
gration Commission's reports and the Federal Bureau 
of Labor's report on cost of living are practically the 
only sources affording information on the proportions 
earning specified amounts in different industries. State 
reports of Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania 



62 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

and Wisconsin, afford data on average annual earnings 
according to industry, but the accuracy of these reports 
is open to serious question because of the methods 
used in ascertaining earnings. Some writers attempt to 
compute annual earnings by multiplying weekly earn- 
ings by 52 and deducting the wage equivalent of time 
lost. Even assuming that the amount of time lost can 
be ascertained with any approximation of accuracy — a 
very doubtful assumption indeed — the difficulties in the 
way of computing the proportions of workers earning 
specified annual earnings are so great as to render such 
statistics of only corroborative value at best. In an- 
other section of this volume the data for weekly earn- 
ings have been summarized in detail as well as the data 
for lost working time; the data for annual earnings 
here presented are confined to statistics giving actual 
annual earnings of workers whose economic status has 
been investigated by recognized authorities. 

Statistics of annual earnings of native and foreign- 
born show a considerably lower economic status for the 
latter group, for both males and females. In the 
table on p. 63 are given the statistics from the two 
sources of data for annual earnings of male workers. 
The males in all instances were heads of families. 

Altho these investigations were made several years 
ago, they afford the latest trustworthy data. 

Relatively lower earnings of male heads of fami- 
lies are shown by the Immigration Commission's re- 
ports than by the Bureau of Labor's inquiry. This is 
explained by the fact that the Immigration Commission's 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 63 

statistics are chiefly of immigrant workers, a large pro- 
portion of whom were unskilled workers from southern 
and eastern Europe, while the Bureau of Labor's data 
are for native and older immigrant workers from north- 
ern Europe and Great Britain. The Immigration Com- 
mission's figures for native born workers are more 
nearly comparable to the Bureau of Labor's data and a 
comparison indicates a close similarity. The preponder- 
ance of newer immigrants in the principal industries 
can not be overlooked and, in the conclusions stated 
in the foregoing paragraphs, was to be taken into con- 
sideration. 



Source of Data; 


Number for 

whom data 

were 

obtained 

25,440 

15,038 

1,809 

13,229 




Per cent. 


earning 




Bureau of Labor, 1903 
Immigration Commis- 
sion, 1908-1909— Total 

Native-born .. .. 

Foreign-born 


Under 
$400 

12.5 

31.4 
12.2 
34.1 


Under 
$600 

47.2 

66.5 
40.7 
70.0 


Under 
$800 

81.9 

89.2 
72.4 
91.5 


Under 
$1,000 

92.2 

96.0 
87.0 
97.2 



The wages according to industry have already been 
indicated in the data summarized for weekly wages. 
Since the amount of lost working time is greater in 
some industries than in others, it is important to note 
differences in actual earnings according to some of the 
principal industries. 

The highest annual earnings of all male workers, ac- 
cording to statistics obtained from over 26,000 indi- 
viduals 18 years of age and over by the Federal Immi- 
gration Commission,^^ were found in the manufacture 
of cigars and tobacco, in copper mining and smelting, 

" Immigration Commission Reports, Vol. 19, p. 226. 



64 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

and in iron ore mining. Less than a fourth of the to- 
bacco workers and copper miners and about 28 per cent, 
of the iron ore workers earned less than $600 a year. 
In all of the other industries for which data were 
secured, except collar and cuff manufacturing, over half 
of the male workers earned less than $600. The lowest 
annual earnings were found in woolen and worsted, 
cotton goods, iron and steel, and leather manufacturing, 
and slaughtering and meat-packing. The statistics are 
summarized in the following table: 

YEARLY EARNINGS (APPROXIMATE) OF MALES 18 YEARS OF 
AGE OR OVER, BY INDUSTRY " 

Per cent, earnings 

A 

Industry Under Under Under Under 

$200 $400 $600 $1,000 

Agricultural implements and vehicles.. 5.1 24.3 6L0 96.9 

Cigars and tobacco 1.3 5.6 16.3 80.0 

Clothing 6.2 33.3 66.9 97.2 

Coal mining, anthracite 2.8 38.7 93.2 99.6 

Coal mining, bituminous 5.3 44.8 85.4 99.2 

Collars and cuffs 2.0 13.1 43.0 94.0 

Copper mining and smelting 0.3 1.9 19.7 96.7 

Cotton goods 11.5 53.8 88.2 99.5 

Furniture 2.7 18.3 58.0 97.1 

Glass 6.1 21.7 57.9 94.7 

Gloves 1.3 11.7 40.3 96.5 

Iron and Steel 24.1 68.4 90.2 98.6 

Iron ore mining 2.4 11.9 28.6 92.5 

Leather 17.4 52.9 86.6 98.4 

Oil refining . . 2.9 23.7 60.4 94.2 

Shoes 8.0 41.8 70.0 95.0 

Silk goods 9.6 49.2 78.5 99.4 

Slaughtering and meat-packing . . . . 12.2 22.2 64.9 95.9 

Sugar refining 3.7 19.3 63.2 98.7 

Woolen and worsted goods 14.9 61.4 89.5 99.4 

Diversified manufactures 4.5 34.3 70.8 95.7 

Total 8.8 40.9 74.7 97.3 

** Immigration Commission Reports, Vol. 19, p. 226. 



IN ^AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 65 

The data according to industry for annual earnings 
of heads of famiHes afforded by the Bureau of Labor's 
Cost of Living study in 1901 are, of course, not com- 
parable to the Immigration Commission's figures, but 
they indicate some of the principal differences noted 
above. The following table summarizes the Bureau of 
Labor's statistics for the principal manufacturing in- 
dustries : 

ANNUAL EARNINGS OF HEADS OF 25,440 FAMILIES; PER CENT. 
IN SPECIFIED GROUP OF EARNINGS. BY INDUSTRY ^^ 

•Under Under Under Under 

Industry $300 $500 $800 $1,000 

Chemicals 4.3 44.8 89.0 98.2 

Clay, glass and stone 2.7 23.1 70.4 92.2 

Food 2.8 26.6 89.8 97.1 

Hand trades: 

Iron and steel 2.1 23.0 77.0 94.4 

Leather 4.4 29.7 91.7 98.0 

Lumber and its manufactures . . . . 4.3 40.4 89.5 97.7 

Metals (other than iron and steel) . . 1.4 19.9 81.0 95.0 

-Paper and printing 1.8 14.9 64.5 84.1 

Textiles 11.0 49.8 81.3 93.9 

Tobacco 6.1 34.7 83.8 97.7 

Vehicles 1.6 24.7 82.6 95.5 

" Grand total a 4.5 29.6 82.2 88.5 

a Includes heads of 25,440 families in all industries. 

Statistics of annual earnings of copper mine workers 
in Michigan are afforded by the Immigration Commis- 
sion, as given in the summary table already quoted, as 
well as by the Bureau of Labor's investigation of the 
1912 strike. The data obtained by the latter investiga- 
tion tend to corroborate the Immigration Commission's 
figures, altho annual earnings must be computed from 



16 



Eighteenth Annual Report of U. S. Commissioner of Labor, p. 285. 



66 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

daily earnings and do not take into consideration lost 
time. However, since nearly all of the mines operated 
308 days or over in 19 12, lost time included only that 
lost voluntarily or on account of sickness or accidents, 
payment being by the shift. The following tabulation 
may therefore be said to show the possible annual earn- 
ings of miners and trammers based on their actual 
earnings during the month of May, 1913 : 

Per cent, earning at specified rates 

Maximum Limit of Annual Earnings Miners Trammers 

Under $616 a a 

$616-$693 27 28.7 

693-770 54.5 57.5 

770-847 27.8 7.7 

847-1,234 8.5 5.2 

1,234-1.309 3.9 0.7 

Over$l,309 2.5 02 

a Less than one-tenth of 1 per cent. 

Over 80 per cent, of the miners were found to be 
earning, at annual rates, between $700 and $800, and 
over 85 per cent, of the trammers were found to be 
earning, at annual rates, between $600 and $770. The 
Immigration Commission's figures of actual earnings 
showed that yy per cent, of workers 18 years of age 
and over, engaged in copper mining and smelting, had 
annual earnings between $600 and $1,000. The average 
annual earnings was found by the same investigation 
to be $716, which was, with the exception of cigar and 
tobacco workers, the highest average annual earnings 
of workers in all the principal industries investigated. 

Some data relating to the opportunity for annual 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 67 

earnings afforded, and thus of the maximum possible 
earnings, were obtained for workers in the steel in- 
dustry from the report of the Federal Bureau of Labor 
on Conditions of Employment in that industry. In 
plants operating 9 or more months in 19 10, fully three- 
fourths of the 74,000 workers did not have the oppor- 
tunity to earn more than $800, and over one-third could 
not have earned more than $600, if they had worked 
every day the plants were operating. The situation is 
indicated in the following table: 



OPPORTUNITIES FOR ANNUAL EARNINGS FOR STEEL WORKERS 
IN THE UNITED STATES DURING 1910^8 

Per cent, of employees having opportunity 

to earn specified amounts in plants 

operating during 1910 — 

Classified Annual Earnings f ^ ^ 

9 or more 6 and under 3 and under 

months 9 months 6 months 

Under $400 5.1 34.7 83.8 

Under 600 38.3 77.8 95.0 

Under 800 74.3 88.7 98.4 

Under 1,000 87.3 93.4 99.5 

Total employees . . . . 73,904 12,686 4,009 

Statistics of annual earnings of women workers for 
specific industries are so meager as to be of doubtful 
value. The Immigration Commission's figures included 
only 3,609 female workers in a large number of in- 
dustries. Without attempting to suggest conclusions for 
dififerent industries, the following table of annual earn- 

" Compiled from statistics published in Conditions of Employment in the 
Iron and Steel Industry, Vol. Ill, pp. 559-560, 565, 570. The figures are for 
steel plants, all principal departments, in New England, Eastern, Pittsburgh, 
Great Lakes and Middle West, and Southern districts. By "opportunity to 
cam" is meant working full time every day the plant was operated in 1910. 





Per cent, earning 

A 




Under 


Under 


Under 


$200 


$300 


$400 


34.2 


61.1 


81.9 


10.6 


37.4 


58.6 


17.1 


39.2 


75.0 


37.6 


63.0 


85.5 


18.5 


40.2 


63.4 


19.3 


43.1 


78.0 


21.3 


51.9 


80.6 



68 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

ings of women workers, i8 years of age and over, ac- 
cording to industry, is presented. Those industries in 
which data for less than loo workers were secured are 
omitted." 



Industry 

Clothing 

Collars and cuffs 

Cotton goods 

Gloves 

Shoes 

Slaughtering and meat-packing 
Woolen and worsted . . . . 



Data for a larger number of women workers in four 
large industries were afforded by the Federal Woman 
and Child Wage-Earners report, altho in different form 
from the Immigration Commission's statistics. These 
data are for average annual earnings of about 7,000 
women 16 years of age and over, and are of especial 
interest because they indicate differences in earnings by 
women or various ages. The data were obtained in the 
course of studies of wage-working families and are 
summarized on p. 69.^' 

It will be noted that with the exception of the com- 
paratively few women workers over 25 years of age, 
the maximum annual earnings was reached between the 
ages of 18 and 22 years, but approximately at the age 
of 19 or 20. 

*'' Compiled from the reports of the Immigration Commission, Vol. 19, p. 228. 
18 U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Bulletin 175, Summary of the Report 
on Condition of Woman and Child Wage-Earners, p. 26. 



IN 'AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 



69 



AGE AND EARNINGS OF FEMALE WORKERS, AGE .16 OR OVER, IN 
FOUR SPECIFIED INDUSTRIES 



Cotton 


Cotton 


mills. 


mills. 


Northern 


Southern 




M 




M 




bo 




bo 




c 




C 




11 




u 




4, tc 


V 
JO 






s^ 


a 

3 


^-S 


•zi 


< 


z 


< 


164 


$272 


298 


$227 


151 


302 


217 


231 


158 


304 


212 


234 


116 


350 


140 


248 


98 


321 


98 


246 


64 


347 


82 


243 


58 


354 


56 


244 


36 


345 


32 


260 


38 


369 


43 


243 


73 


374 


68 


248 


61 


340 


42 


265 



Ready- 
made 
garments 
Men's 



3 
15 



k- 1) 






Glass- 
workers 



to 

c 

he G 

< 



New 

Jersey 

silk 

workers 






Pennsyl- 
vania 
silk 
workers 






16 years. . 

17 years. . 

18 years. . 

19 years. . 

20 years.. 

21 years. . 

22 years. . 

23 years . . 

24 years. . 

25 to 29 
years ... 

30 years or 
over . . . 



405 
338 
289 
230 
183 
136 
119 
64 
43 

112 

68 



$207 
238 
273 
287 
281 
310 
310 
313 
274 

309 

313 



283 

233 

197 

106 

106 

75 

56 

45 

36 

52 

43 



$163 
182 
214 
206 
232 
219 
214 
244 
246 

292 

263 



105 
101 
85 
77 
67 
45 
44 
42 
35 

95 

84 



$257 
280 
335 
320 
356 
391 
409 
404 
443 

419 

418 



192 
142 
102 
55 
47 
38 
29 
27 
11 

29 

14 



$166 
188 
187 
201 
215 
238 
276 
255 
249 

302 

322 



Recent Increases in Wage Rates 

It should be borne in mind that the statistics of 
weekly wage rates and weekly earnings summarized in 
the foregoing pages were obtained prior to the advances 
in wages made in a large number of industries and 
trades in 191 5 and 19 16, especially in 19 16. How far 
the conclusions indicated above may be qualified by 
these advances is, of course, impossible of statement 
until later statistics are available. So far as annual 
earnings of wage-workers are concerned, the period 
of extraordinary industrial activity which began in 
the summer of 191 5 must be regarded in the same light 
as cyclical fluctuations in industrial activity. 



70 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

The recent advances in wage rates which have been 
occasioned by the unusual demand for labor at a time 
of restricted immigration constitute, of course, a cer- 
tain advantage in economic status to wage-earners in 
many instances. The three increases of lo per cent, 
during 191 6 in the wages of steel workers in the 
employ of the United States Steel Corporation and 
of a number of other large iron and steel manufac- 
turing companies, and of 5 and 10 per cent, in textile 
mills in New England and in some other sections, are 
among the most noteworthy advances in industries em- 
ploying large numbers of low-paid, unskilled or semi- 
skilled workers. The wage increases in the coal min- 
ing industry secured by agreements; among shopmen, 
trackmen, and station men on a large number of 
railroads; copper and other metal miners; machinists 
in a large number of industries and localities and muni- 
tion workers generally ; street railway employees ; and in 
many other trades and occupations; have indicated that 
an apparently general upward wage movement has oc- 
curred in the principal industries and trades and occu- 
pations.^^ With the exception, however, of steel, mine, 
and textile workers, the largest increases appear to have 
taken place in the skilled occupations, particularly in 
the metal working plants. How far these increases in 
rates, aside from the increases in earnings made possible 
by steady employment during a period of great indus- 
trial activity, have kept pace with increases in prices of 

" Answers from manufacturers to a questionnaire sent out by the Philadelphia 
Keserve Board Agent in April, 1916, and pujjlished in the Anndiist of April 24, 



I 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 



71 



necessaries and of the ordinary comforts used by wage- 
earning families, is impossible of statement until ac- 
curate statistics are obtained and published. 



1916, showed the following percentages of increases in wages as compared with 
the same period in 1915, by industries; 

Per cent, increase in 
Industries Reporting ^7goimsT' 

(Approximate average) 

Agricultural implements 9 

Automobiles and parts 17 

Carpets, rugs, oilcloth, linoleum 5 

Cement, lime, etc 13 

Chemicals (fertilizers, soap, etc.) 11 

Clothing . . . . 11 

Coal and coal mining 5 

Confectionery ' 8 

Cotton and cotton goods 8 

Department stores 7 

Dry goods, etc 13 

Electrical supplies, etc 15 

Flour and grist mill products 15 

Furniture 9 

Glass 5 

Groceries, etc 12 

Hardware 13 

Hosiery and knit goods 9 

Iron and steel 15 

Leather, glazed kid, and shoes 9 

Lumber, millwork 10 

Machinery, foundry products, loco,, etc 14 

Paints, etc 19 

^ Paper and products 13 

Petroleum, etc 12 

Pottery, pressed brick, etc 12 

Rubber goods 14 

Shipbuilding 15 

Silks, laces, etc 9 

Slaughtering, etc 10 

Tobacco and cigars 6 

Woolens, etc 12 

Miscellaneous a 7 

Total 11 



a Including roofing materials, plumbers' supplies, office machines, dental sup- 
plies, hats, watches, advertising. 



^2 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

III 
LOSS IN WORKING TIME 

Irregularity of employment as a condition of labor 
involves more than irregularity or uncertainty in the 
demand for labor. It involves also those factors which 
determine the worker's ability to grasp or retain the 
opportunity for employment which industry actually 
offers. 

In recent years almost disproportionate attention has 
been given, in discussions of the problems, to factors 
governing the demand for labor, or, more specifically, 
to those causes in the operation and management of 
industry which result in the lack of work. Of scarcely 
less importance are those causes which hinder and pre- 
vent workers from enjoying to the maximum extent the 
chance for work which is already present. If the ques- 
tion is to be considered from the standpoint of the wage- 
earner, and therefore as a condition affecting his eco- 
nomic welfare, both of these phases should receive at- 
tention. On the one hand, there are conditions affecting 
the regularity of the demand for labor, such as seasonal 
and cyclical fluctuations in industry and methods of 
employing and utilizing the labor force in industrial 
establishments. On the other hand, there are conditions 
affecting the supply of labor — its physical efficiency, its 
ability to meet changes in the character of labor needed, 
and its mobility in responding to the geographical and 



IN 'AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 73 

seasonal irregularities in the demand. The extent of 
the effects of these factors, and their causes, are funda- 
mental considerations in understanding irregularity of 
employment as a condition of labor. 

From this point of view, therefore, irregularity of 
employment may best be considered as actual loss in 
working time by wage-earners. Interpreted in terms of 
the worker's economic status, this means decreased earn- 
ings, irregularity in income, economic insecurity, and 
loss of efficiency, which in turn result in inability to 
work regularly — one of the vicious circles that render 
problems of labor so baffling. It means that, as the re- 
sult of the inability of workers to work, or to get work, 
unemployment persists to such an extent that in no 
industry or occupation does the number of unemployed 
workers ever reach zero. This "irreducible minimum" 
of unemployment is not due, as Mr. W. H. Beveridge 
has pointed out, to "the chronic idleness of a few, but to 
the incessant loss of time now by some, now by others, 
of a comparatively large body of men, most of whom 
are more often in unemployment than out of it."^ For 
the purpose of clearness, the available data relating to 
the extent of this condition of labor are summarized in 
this chapter under the following heads : 

1. The wage-earner's loss in working time, including 
general statements and statistics, and statistics for 
specified industries, trades, and occupations. 

2. The extent of unemployment. 

In the succeeding chapter some of the more im- 

* Unemployment : A Problem of Industry, p. 72, 



74 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

portant data bearing on the causes of irregularity of 
employment are summarized. 

The Wage-Earner's Loss in Working Time 

Any estimate of the average amount of time lost by 
the average wage-worker employed even in those in- 
dustries operating normally throughout the year must 
be extremely hazardous. Were sufficient data available 
to admit of a satisfactory estimate for any one year, the 
difficulty of selecting a normal year would be sufficient 
to invalidate any statement if exprest in exact terms. 
Just as in the case of statements of average wages or 
average earnings, a statement of an average loss of 
time would not afford a true picture of the wide differ- 
ence between the "regularly" and the "irregularly" em- 
ployed. 

Some estimate of loss in working time by the average 
American wage-earner, however, is necessary to enable 
the student to form an intelligent idea of irregularity 
of employment as a condition of labor. It must of 
necessity be a very rough estimate, based upon data 
obtained in the numerous investigations and observa- 
tions during recent years, and may be stated as follows : 
A careful review of the available data indicates that 
the average wage-earner, employed in the principal 
manufacturing and mining industries which operate 
throughout the normal year, loses from lo to 20 per 
cent, of his possible working time during the year. 
This estimate takes into consideration all causes of loss 
in working time and may be said to be a rough average. 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 75 

It is subject to important qualifications. The loss of 
working time is much greater in some years than in 
others. For example, the average loss of time per 
worker doubtless exceeded two of the twelve months 
ending on June 31, 191 5, and doubtless was less 
than one during the succeeding twelve months of extra- 
ordinary activity. The amount of lost working time 
also varies for workers in different industries and in 
different occupations and trades. Loss of time appears 
to be greatest in bituminous coal mining, iron and steel 
manufacturing, leather, woolen and worsted, clothing, 
meat-packing and slaughtering, and in all industries 
where the proportion of unskilled labor is great. The 
amount of lost time varies also according to different 
plants within the same industry and according to locality 
and section of the country. Thus, in bituminous coal 
mining, mine workers in 19 13 in Virginia lost only 26 
out of 306 possible working days during the year, while 
in Illinois and Indiana they lost 116 and 117 days out 
of the 306, because of the conditions of the industry 
alone. The amount of lost time varies, too, with the 
individual worker and the class of worker. It has been 
found that the lowest-paid worker is subject to the 
greatest loss in working time, not simply because he is 
unskilled, but because he is poorly nourished and 
weakened by the effects of unfavorable conditions of 
living and, in many instances, by unbearably severe con- 
ditions of work. The skilled worker, it has been found, 
and the better-paid worker under all conditions, has at 
practically all times less chance of losing working time 



76 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

and having diminished earnings through lost time, than 
the unskilled and poorly paid. The trend in the evo- 
lution of modern industry toward the employment of 
a larger proportion of unskilled labor, as well as the 
fact that many industries have come into existence be- 
cause of the availability of a supply of casual laborers 
and of women and children workers who are willing to 
work for less than subsistence wages, suggests that 
there has been a tendency toward a greater irregu- 
larity of employment, unemployment, and loss of work- 
ing time, than ever before. It is also important to 
point out that there is always some loss in working 
time from some known cause; unemployment has never 
reached zero in any trade or industry or occupation in 
which a considerable number of workers are employed. 
Even if the demand for labor should be so great that 
every regular worker would be needed, there is the 
"irreducible minimum" of unemployment because some 
workers are sick or disabled or prevented from working 
their maximum time for other reasons. The situation 
may be depicted more accurately and clearly if some of 
the results of recent investigations and records are 
stated briefly. 

General Statistics and Statements. — Probably the most 
extensive and representative data on the loss in working 
time by wage-workers in the basic industries are afforded 
by the reports of the Federal Immigration Commission. 
Of the 27,909 male workers 18 years of age and over 
who were included in the statistics of regularity of em- 
ployment, only 37.1 per cent, were found to have 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 77 

worked 12 full-time months. Thus, nearly two-thirds 
of them lost time during the year. The situation may 
be exprest as follows: 

PER CENT. OF 27,909 MALE WORKERS IN PRINCIPAL INDUSTRIES 
LOSING WORKING TIME DURING A YEAR 2 

Full Time Months 

OF Working Time Per cent, of 27,909 

Lost by Workers male workers 

9 or more 2.0 

6 " " 9.5 

5 " " 18.0 

4 " " 20.0 

3 " " 32.4 

2 " " 46.8 

1 " " 56.7 

Some time lost 62.9 

No full time lost 37.1 

A comparison of the Immigration Commission's statis- 
tics of weekly earnings with annual earnings is sug- 
gestive. The following tabulations for male and female 
wage-earners i8 years of age and over present these 
comparisons : 

PROPORTION OF 52 TIMES WEEKLY RATE ANNUAL EARNINGS 

OF MALE AND FEMALE EMPLOYEES 18 YEARS OF 

AGE AND OVER 2«» 



t 


1 


«8 rt 


\S 


V 


3 






H 


i: V 


«> 


u 


C" 


<D in 


Sex 


1 


It 


10 




1 

9 


IS 


F, S jj 




^ 


< 


(^ 


^ 


< 


^ 


Males 


220,390 


$12.64 


$657 


26,616 


$475 


n 


Females 


57,712 


7.96 


414 


3,609 


304 


n 



* Practically all of the data was obtained during the year 1909, and thus 
covers a year ending at various dates, according to individuals furnishing data, 
in 1909, The above tabulation is compiled from Reports of the U. S. Immi- 
gration Commission, Vol. 20, p. 453. 

'a/Wd., Vol. 19, pp. 111-123. 



78 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

While the number of women workers reporting annual 
earnings may be too small to be thoroughly repre- 
sentative, it appears that the average male worker lost 
at least a fourth of his annual earnings. Translated 
into working time, he lost the equivalent of 13 weeks' 
earnings, or about three months. 

■K more intimate glimpse of what lost time means to 
the workingman and his family was afforded by the 
Federal Bureau of Labor's study of 24,402 working- 
class families in 1901. This investigation showed that 
in nearly half of these families, the principal bread- 
winner lost working time during the year. The average 
time lost by the 12,154 heads of families reporting lost 
time was 9.43 weeks during the year, or more than two 
months, or an average of 4.70 weeks for the total 
24,402,^ about 9 per cent, of their full time. 

Replies to inquiries made by the New York Commis- 
sion on Employers' Liability and Unemployment in 
1910, from 179 labor union secretaries in the State of 
New York, indicated that in only 8 per cent, of the 
unions the workers lost no time in consequence of un- 
employment, while in 25 per cent, the workers lost three 
months or more on the average during the year. Tak- 
ing all trades represented in these unions it was shown 

3 Eighteenth Annual Report of the United States Commissioner of Labor, 
p. 44. 

Similar data, altho for a very much smaller number of families, were 
afforded by an intensive study by the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of 
Labor of 152 workingmen's families who were considered to be above the 
average in economic status. These showed that the heads of these families lost 
an average of 35 working days, or 11 per cent, of the total possible working 
time. (Thirty-second Annual Report of the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics 
of Labor, pp. 239-314.) 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 79 

that organized workers lost on an average 20 per cent, 
of their possible income through unemployment/ 

The situation among women workers employed in 
several important industries is well illustrated by the 
results of the New York Factory Investigating Com- 
mission's recent inquiry. As summed up by Mrs. Irene 
Osgood Andrews, "at least 15 per cent, should be 
added to any wage rate (for women) in order to cover 
losses from short time work."^ Of 1,500 comparatively 
steadily employed women who were interviewed in the 
course of this commission's investigation,^ 1,000 had 
lost on an average one month during the preceding 
year. In the manufacture of shirts, candy and paper 
boxes, and in mercantile establishments, in which were 

* Third Report, 1911, pp. 2, 8. The significance of this average may be 
more clearly seen if it is stated for groups of unions, as in the following 
table: 

Per cent, of possible Number of unions in which 

earnings lost by average member lost earn- 

unemployment ings by unemployment 

Less than 10 18 

10 to 20 36 

20.1 to 30 15 

30.1 to 40 36 

40.1 to 50 21 

50.1 to 60 10 

Over 60 3 
ahid, p. S4.) 

The same report shows that, in 365 trade unions for which data was se- 
cured, two-thirds of the members worked the year round, the remaining third 
being unemployed for some period during the year. The average time lost for 
all members of the 365 unions during the year was 1 month and 25 days (p. 
162). The report says: 

"While thera is little accurate information available as to the exact number 
unemployed at any one time, there is enough to show that about 40 per cent, 
of our wage-earners suffer some unemployment every year, that on the average 
they lose ten weeks each, and that the loss in wages amounts to 20 per cent, 
of what the earnings would be were employment steady throughout the year." 
(p. 69.) 

5 Relation of Irregular Employment to the Living Wage for Women, Fourth 
Report of the N. Y. Factory Investigating Commission, 1915, Vol. ii., p. 513. 
'Survey, Vol. xxxiii, p. 507, Feb. 6, 1915. 



8o CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

approximately 150,000 persons in more than 2,000 
establishments scattered throughout the state, it was 
found that from 10 per cent, to 50 per cent, of the usual 
working force were added and displaced during the 
course of 12 months for various reasons. In other 
words, that proportion of the employees was unemployed 
during the year, in addition to time lost during em- 
ployment. 

The attempt of the Census Bureau in 1900 to obtain 
statistics of the length of unemployment has generally 
been regarded as unproductive of accurate results, but 
at least it has afforded corroboration of the indications 
given by other statistics of the seriousness of loss of 
time as a factor in determining the wage-earner's eco- 
nomic status. As summarized by the census report, 
"approximately four persons out of five who claimed 
gainful occupations were continuously employed through- 
out the census year, while the fifth person was idle for 
a period varying from one to 12 months."^ 

Some light on the total time lost by organized workers 
in a year is thrown by the monthly unemployment re- 

T Twelfth Census of the United States, 1900; Occupations, p. ccxxxv. Ex- 
cluding persons engaged in agricultural pursuits, professional service and 
domestic and personal pursuits, the statistics for persons 10 years of age or 
over, may be summarized briefly in the following table: 

Per cent, unemployed 

, ^ , 

^ ^ 1 to 3 4 to 6 7 to 12 

Classes of Occupation ^^^^^^ ^^„ths months 

Males 

Trade and transportation 48.4 35.7 15.9 

Manufacturing and mechanical pursuits.. 49.7 38.4 11.9 

Females 

Trade and transportation 39.3 34.9 25.8 

Manufacturing and mechanical pursuits.. 50.0 35.4 14.6 



1 



IN "AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 8i 

ports from representative unions in New York State to 
the New York Department of Labor. These reports 
show the percentages of members idle on the last day of 
each month for the ii years from 1904 to 19 14. A 
monthly mean percentage is thus a composite day in 
each year, the average mean percentage for the 1 1 years 
being 22.^ Thus it is indicated that the average union 
member lost out of 300 possible working days during 
the average year 66 working days, or about two and a 
half months. 

Statistics for Specific Industries. — Statements of 
time lost by workers regardless of industry, loca- 
tion, or other factors, like statements of average wages, 
do not depict real conditions in an adequate manner. 
Seasonal and other variations in the regularity of em- 
ployment offered, as well as causes affecting the char- 
acter of the demand for labor and the employ ability 
of workers, result in differences in time lost among 
groups of workers. In order to understand the in- 
tensity of loss of working time as a factor in deter- 
mining the economic status of the wage-earner, it is 
necessary to inquire into these variations as far as the 
available data will permit. 

Without taking up at this point the question of the 
causes, but confining ourselves to a bare presentation of 
the available data showing the extent of the loss of 
time, it is important to note that the widest variations 
appear to be according to industry. When complete 
statistics as to the causes of loss in working time are 

■Bulletin 69 of the New York Department of Labor, p, 5. 



82 



CONDITIONS OF LABOR 



available, it is possible that the greatest variations will 
appear to occur on a different basis. For the present, 
however, statistics of time lost are shown chiefly by in- 
dustries and trades. 



MONTHS WORKED BY MALES DURING THE YEAR, 16 YEARS OF 

AGE OR OVER, EMPLOYED AWAY FROM HOME, BY GENERAL 

NATIVITY OF INDIVIDUAL AND BY INDUSTRY 

(From the Reports of the Immigration Commission, Vol. 19) 



Industry 



Agricultural implements and 
vehicles . . .... 

Cigars and tobacco . . 

Qothing .. .. .. .. 

Coal mining, anthracite . . 

Coal mining, bituminous . . 

Collars and cuffs 

Copper mining and smelting 

Cotton goods 

Furniture 

Glass 

Gloves 

Iron and Steel 

Iron ore mining 

Leather 

Oil refining 

Shoes 

Silk goods 

Slaughtering and meat-pack- 
ing . . ^ 

Sugar refining 

Woolen and worsted goods 

Diversified manufactures . . 

Total 27,909 



Number 




Per cent. 


working 

A 




reporting 


12 

months 


9 

months 


6 

months 


3 
months 


complete 
data 






or over 


or over 


or over 


683 


42.6 


83.0 


94.1 


98.0 


164 


73.2 


90.9 


97.0 


99.4 


1,135 


37.8 


73.7 


95.4 


98.9 


1,011 


9.0 


76.1 


96.4 


99.3 


3,928 


16.8 


46.9 


88.1 


99.0 


263 


63.5 


92.8 


97.3 


99.2 


718 


93.5 


98.7 


99.9 


99.9 


2,037 


42.9 


79.1 


92.3 


97.9 


446 


54.5 


88.8 


98.0 


99.3 


794 


53.8 


77.7 


90.8 


99.0 


336 


80.4 


92.6 


98.8 


100.0 


4,550 


20.0 


44.1 


75.0 


94.2 


295 


60.3 


83.7 
6t.2 


95.6 


99.3 


805 


38.6 


87.1 


96.6 


889 


62.7 


79.6 


97.3 


99.4 


1,162 


29.9 


64.1 


90.9 


98.3 


366 


38.3 


61.7 


91.3 


98.1 


1,447 


54.7 


80.1 


96.8 


99.4 


393 


61.1 


82.4 


96.2 


99.2 


767 


37.3 


67.0 


89.8 


97.7 


5,720 


41.4 


76.4 


95.5 


98.9 



37.1 



67.6 



90.5 



98.0 



Disregarding the Census unemployment statistics 
prepared according to industry as of too doubtful value 
for purposes of comparison, the most comprehensive 
data by industries are afforded by the reports of the 
Immigration Commission in 1909 for about 20 prin- 
cipal industries. These statistics afford an illuminating 



IN 'AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 



83 



picture of the workers' loss of time in the various in- 
dustries. In all the 20 industries named, excepting 
bituminous coal mining, iron and steel, and leather man- 
ufacturing, 90 per cent, of the workers worked over 6 



MONTHS WORKED DURING THE YEAR BY FEMALES 16 YEARS 

OF AGE OR OVER EMPLOYED AWAY FROM HOME, BY 

GENERAL NATIVITY OF INDIVIDUAL AND BY INDUSTRY 



Number Per cent, working 

Industry reporting 12 9 6 

complete ^^^^^^ months months 

or over or over 
Agricultural implements and 

vehicles 82 59.8 75.6 92.7 

Cigars and tobacco .... 37 62.2 78.4 94.6 

Qothing 233 55.4 79.0 97.0 

Coal mining, anthracite . . 15 a a a 

Coal mining, bituminous . . 51 56.9 66.7, 90.2 

Collars and cuffs 134 61.9 92.5 95.5 

Copper mining and smelting 37 81.1 91.9 97.3 

Cotton goods 753 33.2 75.3 89.0 

Furniture 88 63.6 89.8 96.6 

Glass 36 47.2 69.4 86.1 

Gloves 74 78.4 90.5 98.6 

Iron and steel 134 56.0 71.6 87.3 

Iron ore mining 4 a a a 

Leather 53 50.9 86.8 100.0 

Oil refining 57 75.4 86.0 96.5 

Shoes 295 33.9 67.8 91.5 

Silk goods 67 20.9 52.2 86.6 

Slaughtering and meat-pack- 
ing 151 64.2 86.8 96.0 

Sugar refining 41 87.8 97.6 100.0 

Woolen and worsted goods 293 33.8 64.8 88.4 

Diversified manufactures .. 1,375 58.5 86.8 95.4 

Total 4,010 50.6 79.8 93.0 

a Not computed, owing to small number involved. 



3 

months 
or over 

90,8 
94.6 

100.0 

a 

98.0 

100.0 

100.0 
96.3 
98.9 
97.2 

100.0 

93.3 

a 

100.0 
98.2 
99.3 
97.0 

99.3 

100.0 

96.6 

98.6 



98.0 



months. Only a little more than one-third of all the 
workers, however, worked steadily throughout the year 
and wide variations according to industry were evident. 
While over 90 per cent, of the workers in copper mining 
and smelting were employed during the 12 months, only 



84 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

9 per cent, of anthracite coal miners were so employed. 
Two-thirds of the workers in all the industries named 
worked nine months or more, but in bituminous coal 
mining, iron and steel, leather, shoe, silk goods, and 
woolen and worsted manufacturing, less than two-thirds 
lost as little as three months time during the year. It 
must be remembered that these statistics show total loss 
of time, whether it be due to irregularity of employ- 
ment, disability or other causes. 

In the steel industry it has been calculated that the 
average worker loses at least 13 per cent, of the working 
year through causes over which he has no control. This 
calculation is based on a special federal investigation 
covering 90,757 male employes in 19 10, a prosperous 
year, and does not allow for loss of time resulting from 
curtailment or closing down of plants because of de- 
pressions in less prosperous years. Out of the 52 weeks, 
the average steel worker lost at least five during the 
year. Only 63 per cent, of the steel workers were 
found to have had a maximum of 44 weeks of possible 
employment in 19 10. 

Some idea of the minimum lost time in coal mining 
may be gained from statistics of days when the mines 
were in operation. These statistics do not show, of 
course, time lost from any other causes than the con- 
dition of the industry. Assuming that there are 306 
possible working days in the year, as a basis of com- 
parison, the following table for the principal coal mining 
states and for all bituminous and anthracite mining in- 
dicates the average number of days lost in 1913 : 



IN 'AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 85 

DAYS LOST IN 1913 IN COAL MINING DUE TO INACTIVITY 

OF MINES 

(Compiled from U. S. Geological Survey Coal Production in 1913, p. 751.) 

Average number Number of 

State and Group employed days lost 

Bituminous : 

Alabama 24,552 51 

Colorado 11,990 77 

Illinois 79,529 117 

Indiana 22,235 116 

Iowa 15,757 111 

Kansas 12,479 109 

Kentucky 26,332 94 

Missouri 10,418 119 

Ohio 45.815 100 

Oklahoma 9,044 109 

Pennsylvania 172,196 39 

Tennessee 11,263 65 

Virginia 9,162 26 

West Virginia 74,786 72 

Wyoming 8,331 74 

Pennsylvania anthracite 175,745 49 

Grand total a 747,644 68 

a Includes all States in which coal is mined. 

The above statistics afford an idea of the differences 
in time lost in various states. In Illinois, Indiana and 
Missouri the time lost because of the inactivity of mines 
was nearly three months, whereas in the Pennsylvania 
bituminous mines it was about a month and a half, and 
in Virginia about a month. Bituminous coal miners in 
the United States on an average could not work over 
nine months in the year, and anthracite miners ten 
months. It should be remembered, however, that 19 13 
was a record year for anthracite workers and was ex- 
ceeded by bituminous miners since 1890 in only three 
years — 1899, 1900 and 1907.^ 

• U. S. Geological Survey Coal Production, 1913, Part II., p. 750. 



86 CONDITIONS OF VABOR 

The New York Factory Investigating Commission 
found that loss of time was suffered by employees in 
practically all industries, occupations and plants. This 
was especially true in the lower wage levels. Thus, 
workers receiving low rates of pay lost, as a general 
rule, more time than workers receiving rates above the 
average. Dr. Howard B. Woolston, the director of 
investigation for the Commission, in a summary of the 
results of the study,^^ gives the following instances : 

"In mercantile establishments, only 99 persons were 
quoted at rates under $3 a week, but in a typical week 
selected 2,040 persons actually received less than this 
amount. In the confectionery industry, 13 per cent, of 
the workers for whom rates were given were engaged 
at less than $5; but 22.5 per cent, failed to find so much 
in their pay envelopes in a given week. Of 15,000 
female factory workers in New York City, nearly 
8,000 received less than $6.50 during a busy week last 
winter, and 4,000 got less than $5. Out of 42,000 
persons of both sexes employed in all lines (including 
900 adult men and 12,500 women over 18 years old), 
more than half were paid less than $8. About 12,000 
of these low-paid workers had more than one year of 
experience in the trade, and 10,000 were in occupa- 
tions demanding some skill and responsibility in the 
making or selling of goods. The simplest explanation 
for this difference between expectations and receipts is 
that many persons did not work full time. It was 
actually found that nearly 20 per cent, of all those em- 

" The Survey, Vol. xxxiii, pp. 505-511. 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 87 

ployed lost one day or more during the week recorded. 
The men and boys averaged 5.8 work-days, the women 
and girls 5.6." 

FLUCTUATION OF EMPLOYMENT AMONG 14,325 WOMEN WORKERS 
IN MASSACHUSETTS CANDY, CORSET AND BRUSH FACTORIES 
AND LAUNDRIES AND DEPARTMENT STORES. 

(Compiled from First and Second Annual Reports of the Massachusetts 
Minimum Wage Commission.) 

Per cent, of workers employed: 





w « 


^ vo 


en C 


M « 


CO* C 




J « 




Sim 


.^'^ 


s- 




*C £ 




O " 


n 2 


*n CO 




O V 


<N c 


ii (U 


O (U 


O Wi 






CO 2 


n o S 

1 i 


^1 


3l 


S; 


T3 CO ^ 


"col 


00.2 

CO «^ 


COON T^ 


1 


C^^ 


S^^" 


g,VOCM 


^^00 


nco^ 


% 


U 


J 


fi 


O 


m 


1 


100.0 


100.0 


100.0 


100.0 


100.0 


2 


76.0 


77.1 


90.1 


99.7 


100.0 


3 


63.1 


66.4 


84.4 


99.7 


100.0 


4 


53.0 


57.6 


79.1 


99.2 


99.7 


5 


44.7 


49.1 


74.0 


96.7 


99.5 


6 


39.6 


45.7 


70.6 


95.6 


99.2 


7 


35.2 


40.9 


67.3 


94.8 


98.5 


8 


31.4 


36.2 


62.7 


93.7 


97.2 


9 


29.4 


33.0 


58.7 


92.0 


96.2 


10 


26.4 


30.2 


53.9 


89.6 


94.6 


11 


21.8 


25.9 


44.5 


77.0 


85.7 



12 2.6 9.4 19.7 25.7 52.7 

Of 4,000 women employed in the millinery shops in 
the State of New York that were investigated, only no 
were on the pay-roll in one shop for the full 52 weeks. 
Examinations of the pay-rolls showed that in the entire 
year there were only 11 weeks in which the force em- 
ployed did not fall 10 per cent, or more below the maxi- 
mum, and only 25 weeks in which it did not fall below the 
maximum by 25 per cent, or more. For large numbers 



88 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

of milliners, employment for only six months in the 
year in their trade is the ordinary expectation.^^ 

The Massachusetts Minimum Wage Commission has 
published statistics showing the percentages of workers 
employed for specified numbers of months during a year 
in representative candy factories, corset factories, laun- 
dries and department stores in that state. Stated in 
terms of the loss of time, over 60 per cent, of the con- 
fectionery workers, about 55 per cent, of the laundry 
workers, nearly 30 per cent, of the department store 
workers, but less than 5 per cent, of corset and brush 
makers, lost six months of working time. Nearly 70 per 
cent, of confectionery workers, 66 per cent, of laundry 
workers, over 41 per cent, of department store workers, 
and less than 4 per cent, of brush makers, lost three 
months of their working time. A small proportion of 
them worked steadily throughout the year. The wide 
difference in the lost time between workers in candy 
factories, laundries and department stores on the one 
hand, and workers in corset and brush factories, on the 
other hand, was probably due in large measure to the 
adoption of a different method of presenting statistics. 
In the former case, the wage records of all of the em- 
ployees, except those working less than four weeks, 
were included; in the latter case, the wage records of 
only those whose payments extended over a period of 
eleven months or more previous to the taking of the 
transcript of the pay-roll were included. Hence, in 

"H. B. Woolston — ^Wages in New York, The Survey, February 6, 1915, 
pp. 507-508, quoting results of investigation by Committee on Woman's Work 
of Russell Sage Foundation. 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 89 

corset and brush factories lost time for a selected 
group consisting of the steadiest workers is shown, 
and practically all of those who, for any one of a 
variety of reasons, may have left the industry are 
eliminated. In the candy factories, laundries and de- 
partment stores, of course, "it is not clear that the 
amount of absence shown may be called strictly unem- 
ployment," as the Commission points out,^^ nor do the 
statistics take into any account any other work those 
absent from the pay-roll may have done. But giving 
full weight to voluntary withdrawals of workers, the 
statistics do indicate that the loss of time by workers in 
the three industries named is extremely large and that, 
for one reason or another, the necessity was created for 
a large proportion of the workers either to get employ- 
ment elsewhere in order to sell their labor continuously 
throughout the year or to remain idle. 

Another illustration of the amount of time lost by 
women workers is given by the results of a recent in- 
vestigation into working conditions in Indiana mer- 
cantile establishments and garment factories which was 
made by the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, in co- 
operation with the Federal Commission on Industrial 
Relations and the Indiana Commission of Working 
Women. Over 69 per cent, of the women employed in 
mercantile establishments in Indianapolis, Terre Haute, 
Evansville, Fort Wayne, South Bend and Lafayette re- 
ported loss of time. This loss of time averaged 13.9 

*• Second Annual Report of the Massachusetts Minimum Wage Commission, 
p. 73. 



90 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

per cent, of the weeks of possible work for those unem- 
ployed. Over 87 per cent, of the women employed in 
garment factories in all of the same cities named above, 
with the exception of Lafayette, reported lost time 
which averaged 15.1 per cent, of the possible weeks of 
work.^^ 

The above statistics indicate roughly the seriousness 
of lost working time measured in weeks or months. 
They do not tell the complete story, however. Even 
within periods of weeks, lost time is a serious factor. 
Some idea of the loss of time by workers even when 
regularly employed is suggested in certain industries by 
the Federal Bureau of Labor's Woman and Child Wage- 
Earners' report. This report presented statistics based 
on the study of pay-rolls for a representative week, and 
showed that workers in cotton mills in New England 
lost from 13 to 20 per cent, of their full pay time and in 
Southern mills from 20 to 24 per cent., not including 
doffers, who lost 60 per cent. Statistics of loss of time 
during a representative week, as shown by the same 
investigation, may be summarized thus for broad silk, 
silk ribbon and throwing mills '}^ 

It was found that women workers in the men's cloth- 

" Hours, Earnings and Conditions of Labor of Women in Indiana Mer- 
cantile Establishments and Garment Factories, Bureau of Labor Statistics 
Bulletin No. 160, 1914. 

" Woman and Child Wage-Earners, Vol. iv, p. 140. 

Per cent, of full time lost 



Sex and Age Groups 


New Jersey 


mills 


Pennsylvania milJT 


Males, 16 years and over . . . 


5.6 




17.6 


Females, 16 years and over . 


8.5 




22.7 


Males under 16 years . . . 


12.7 




14.7 


Females under 16 years . . . . 


9.5 




14.2 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 91 

ing industry in New York, Chicago, Rochester and 
Philadelphia lost from 10 to 13 per cent., and in Balti- 
more 20 per cent., of their full time in a representative 
week. The Connecticut State report shows that in 
cotton mills women workers lost 12.3 per cent., in silk 
mills, 15.5- per cent., and in metal trades, 12.3 per cent, 
of their full time earnings in a representative week.^^ 

Miss Van Kleek in a study of artificial flower makers 
in New York City concluded that "the tax made by 
irregular employment on the income of flower makers 
amounts to about two dollars a week — a sum by no 
means insignificant."^^ In her story of women in book 
binding, she states that even allowing for income de- 
rived from other occupations during unemployed periods, 
the loss from unemployment is more than $50 in 12 
months. Twice she found the average income of a 
bindery girl, from all occupations, to be about $300, 
the loss of time approximating two months. "This," 
says Miss Van Kleek, "is not a small loss when the 
fact is realized that very few bindery girls earn $5CX5 
or more in a year."^^ 

The recent investigation for the wage scale board of 
the dress and waist industry in New York City, con- 
ducted in 19 12 by Mr. N. I. Stone, afforded some 
illuminating data. The fact that statistics of employ- 
ment do not fully indicate loss of time, as exprest in 
earnings, is clearly shown, as well as the fact that there 

" Quoted by C. E. Persons — Women's Work and Wages, Quarterly Journal 
of Economics, February, 1915, p. 210. 

"Artificial Flower Makers, p. 72. 

" Women in the Book Binding Trade, p. 86. 



92 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

is a great loss of earnings through loss of time. There 
were employed in the 260 shops, whose pay-rolls were 
studied, a maximum of 20,524 people. The average 
employment throughout the year was 83.3 per cent.; 
that is, if the maximum number employed in any 
week (20,524) had been given an equal chance they 
would have had employment 83.3 per cent, of the year, 
or over 43 weeks. "That does not mean, however," 
says the report, "that they would be fully employed 
those weeks; it means merely that they would be on 
the pay-roll for that length of time, but the actual 
amount of work they would have an opportunity of 
doing is shown by the average annual wage percentage, 
which was 73 per cent. This percentage is based on the 
wages actually paid out from week to week and is 
necessarily smaller than the percentage of people em- 
ployed because workers, especially those paid by the 
piece, may be on the pay-roll for a week, but be paid 
only for the work actually done by them, which may 
last only a few hours each day or a few hours for the 
entire week, especially when work is not plentiful. "^^ 
There is a tendency to keep as many workers on the pay- 
roll as possible in dull seasons in order to maintain the 
shop organization. 

The variations in loss of working time according to 
industry and trade are also suggested in the statistics 
of unemployment among organized workers published 
by the state labor bureaus and departments of New 

" United States Bureau of Labor Statistics Bulletin, No. 146 — ^Wages and 
Regularity of Employment and Standardization of Piece Rates in the Dress 
and Waist Industry, New York City, p. 161. 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 93 

York and Massachusetts. These statistics are not in 
the form of days lost from work, but indicate the pro- 
portion of union members idle on specified days in each 
year. They appear to corroborate the variations shown 
in the data already referred to. For example, the five- 
year average for 1910-1914 of the mean monthly per- 
centage of idleness in representative trade unions in 
certain industries in New York State was as follows :^^ 

Building and stone working, etc 28.2 

Transportation 11.1 

Clothing and textiles 33.1 

Metals, machinery, etc 167 

Printing, binding, etc 6.7 

Woodworking and furniture 20.3 

Food and liquors 10.8 

Theaters and music 16.2 

Tobacco 14.3 

Restaurants, trade, etc 7.1 

Public employment 1.0 

Stationary engine tending 2.0 

Computing the mean or average time lost on a basis 
of 300 possible working days during the year, it appears 
that in the building and stone working industry the 
average worker lost approximately 85 working days, 
and the clothing and textile worker 100 days, as con- 
trasted with less than 21 days for the worker in print- 
ing and binding, restaurants, trade, public employment 
and stationary engineer tending. 

Statistics for Specific Trades and Occupations — 
Variations in loss of working time occur not only ac- 
cording to industry, but also according to trades and 
according to occupations within industries. The statis- 

^» Compiled from Bulletin No. 69 of the New York Department of Labor. 



94 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

tical data on these points are meager, but there are 
enough at least to indicate the presence of the condition 
and to emphasize its grave import. 

An illustration of this condition among the different 
trades is given in statistics for 365 trade unions in the 
state of New York for 19 10, as presented by the New 
York Commission on Employers' Liability and Unem- 
ployment. The statistics are based on replies received 
in response to inquiries sent to unions and are doubt- 
less, in some instances, inexact estimates. They are 
sufficient, however, to show in an approximate manner 
the amount of lost working time which even the organ- 
ized, and in most instances, highly paid worker, suf- 
fers.^*' (See table on p. 96.) 

Interpreted in terms of lost earnings,^'^* these statistics 
of loss of working time show that the trades which 
suffered the greatest loss are the masons and brick- 
layers, pavers and rammer men, millwrights and stage 
hands, who were able to earn only from 50 to 60 per 
cent, of what they could have earned if they could have 
worked steadily throughout the year. Longshoremen, 
building laborers, and marine transport workers were 
able to earn from 60 to 70 per cent.^^ 

In the building trades, according to the testimony of 
union witnesses at the 19 14 hearing of the Commission 
on Industrial Relations, bricklayers work about 60 per 
cent, of the working time in a normal year, but in 191 3 

«> Third Report of the New York Conamission on Employers' Liability and 
Unemployment, 1911, p. 162. 

»o«JHd., p. 54. 

21 The following tabulation classifies the workers in the various trades and 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 



95 



they worked about 40 per cent. ; steamfitters in a 
normal year lose little time, but in 1913 and 1914 half 
of the trade was idle, most of the plumbers work about 
six months of a year; about 50 per cent, of the sheet 
metal workers work steadily the year round, the other 
50 per cent, losing from 6 to 10 months time; car- 
penters lose on an average two months in a normal 
year, and the same condition prevails among tile layers.^^ 
Not only are there variations in the loss of time ac- 
cording to industry and trades, but variations occur in 
departments and in occupations in the same industry. 
It is a well-known fact that in the iron and steel in- 
dustry, for example, there are wide variations as to 
operating time in the different mills or departments. 

industries according to loss of earnings due to loss of working time: 

TRADES IN WHICH THE PERCENTAGE OF ACTUAL TO POSSIBLE 
EARNINGS WAS 



Over 90 per cent. 
Barbers 
Retail clerks 
Vehicle Workers 
Railway employees 
Stationary engineers and firemen 
Blacksmiths and boilermakers 
Hotel and restaurant employees 
From 80 to 90 per cent. 
Tobacco 

Municipal employees 
Metal workers 
Glass workers 
Printers 

Brewery workers 
Woodworkers 
Molders 



From 70 to 80 per cent. 
Painters, decorators and paperhang- 

ers 
Clothing and textiles 
Carpenters and joiners 
Teamsters 
Stonecutters 
Cement workers 
Electrical Workers 

From 60 to 70 per cent. 
Longshoremen 
Building laborers 
Marine workers 

From 50 to 60 per cent. 
Masons and bricklayers 
Stage-hands 

Pavers and rammermen 
Millwrights 



"Hearings on Building Trades of New York City. 



96 



CONDITIONS OF LABOR 



PER CENT. OF MEMBERS OF TRADE UNIONS WHO WORK THE 
YEAR ROUND, AND THE AVERAGE TIME LOST BY MEMBERS 



TSAOE 



Railroad and railway employees 

Metal workers 

Painters, decorators and paper- 
hangers 

Glass workers 

Butchers 

Engineers and firemen (station- 
ary) 

Plumbers, steam and gas fitters 

Clothing and textiles 

Letter carriers and postoffice 
clerks 

Carpenters and joiners 

Longshoremen 

Teamsters and drivers 

Stone workers 

Printing and bookbinding 

Cement workers 

Boilermakers and blacksmiths. . 

Brewery workmen 

Bakers and confectioners . . 

Building employees (miscella- 
neous) 

Masons and bricklayers . . 

Wood-workers 

Stage-hands 

Molders 

Vehicle-workers 

Tobacco-workers 

Machinists 

Barbers 

Pavers, rammermen, etc 

Marine-workers 

Electrical-workers 

Millwrights 

Hotel and restaurant employees 

Musicians 

Retail clerks 

Miscellaneous and unclassified. . 

Total 





2l 






<u 3 












s ° 


t^ 


c 






2 


^ ^s 


E « 


11 


g3S 


11 


3 ♦* 


,*s 


is 


^ 


?H 


< 


44 


92.0 


3 weeks 


21 


73.9 


IH months 


18 


29.3 


2^A months 


4 


40.5 


3 1-3 months 


4 


91.0 


2 months 


9 


96.6 


6 days 


10 


70.0 


2 months 


18 


38.6 


3 months 


21 


100.0 


None 


31 


60.5 


2% months 


3 


41.3 


2 1-3 months 


4 


75.7 


K month 


3 


36.6 


3 months 


24 


86.5 


25 days 


4 


47.5 


3 months 


6 


80.0 


H month 


8 


97.0 


H month 


6 


86.0 


20 days 


8 


24.0 


3j4 months 


17 


16.0 


5 months 


5 


65.4 


IK months 


3 


33.3 


4 months 


5 


57.4 


1^ months 


4 


100.0 


5 days 


12 


63.5 


1 1-3 months 


6 


93.3 


10 days 


10 


97.3 


4 days 


3 




6 months 


7 


43.5 


4 months 


2 


87.0 


None 


2 


57.5 


3J4 months 


4 


67.2 


IH months 


4 


25.7 


4J4 months 


3 


100.0 


None 


32 


66.5 


1 2-3 months 



365 



66.6 



1 month, 25 days 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 97 

In one plant, according to the Federal Report on Con- 
ditions of Labor in the Iron and Steel Industry, one 
rolling mill unit operated 18.5 weeks in a year while 
another operated 38.1 weeks during the year. In another 
plant one rolling mill unit operated 23 weeks and another 
45.9 weeks. The following table from the report shows 
for each of the five principal departments the distribu- 
tion of the employees according to the number of weeks 
their respective plant units operated in 1910:^® 

CLASSIFIED NUMBER OF WEEKS DURING WHICH DEPARTMENTS 

OF STEEL PLANTS OPERATED IN 1910, AND PER CENT, 

OF EMPLOYEES AFFECTED— ALL DISTRICTS" 

Per. cent, of employees according to operating time in 





S 


s 










Classified Number of ^ 
Weeks in Operation ^ 


■2 

11 






1 
1- 


E 




M 


PQ 


C 


« 


« 


% 


Weeks 














Under 20 


2.0 


... 


0.2 


0.5 


1.7 


1.2 


20 and under 24 . . 


3.1 


3.3 


1.9 


2.7, 


0.7 


2.3 


24 and under 28 . . 


1.2 


3.6 


1.6 


2.1 


2.4 


1.9 


28 and under 32 . . 


3.3 


... 


3.0 


1.0 


3.4 


2.5 


32 and under 36 .. 


2.5 


6.7 


2.7 


5.0 


8.3 


4.6 


36 and under 40 . . 


8.8 


9.2 


2.6 


10.6 


14.3 


9.4 


40 and under 44 . . 


17.3 


11.5 


1.7 


18.4 


18.2 


15.0 


44 and under 48 . . 


18.0 


17.2 


29.7 


31.3 


29.6 


25.4 


48 and over . . 


43.9 


48.4 


56.7 


28.2 


21.2 


37.6 


Number of employees 


30,537 


5,510 


13,887 


22,552 


18,271 


90,757 



The variation in lost time according to occupations 
within certain industries was also shown by the reports 
of the Massachusetts Minimum Wage Commission. In 
corset factories, for example, over 53 per cent, of 
workers were found to have been employed steadily 

28 Conditions of Employment, Iron & Steel Ind., Vol. iii, pp. 212-13. 
2T The detailed tables of which this is a summary are shown in Appendix i, 
F 548, of this report. 



98 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

throughout the year at ironing, while only 11.8 per cent, 
of the menders and 14.3 per cent, of the flossers were 
steadily employed.^^ In brush factories, 61.6 per cent. 
of finishers were employed throughout the year as con- 
trasted with 43.1 per cent, of those engaged in setting, 
and only 16.7 per cent, in soldering.^^ In these two in- 
dustries, it has already been noted, employment data 
were obtained only for those whose names were on the 
pay-roll during the 12 months. In candy factories, 
where all of the workers were included, over one-tenth 
of the nut sorters worked 12 months, as contrasted with 
less than i per cent, of the machine tenders and about 
I per cent, of dippers.^^ In laundries, about 3 per cent, 
of all workers engaged in shaking and 7.3 per cent, in 
collar ironing and finishing worked throughout the 12 
months, while 20 per cent, of those engaged in sewing 
and mending, 22.2 per cent, in bosom press operating, 
and 23.5 per cent, in hand washing were steadily em- 
ployed throughout the year.^^ The same character of 
statistics for 6,449 department store "regulars" {i.e., ex- 
clusive of the additional force employed before Christmas 
and Easter and in other busy times), is of particular 
interest. Pay-rolls of twenty-two department stores, 
chiefly the large establishments in Boston, and exclusive 
of five- and ten-cent stores, were covered in the Mini- 
mum Wage Commission's report. The following table 
shows the fluctuation in employment by occupations: 



28 First Annual Report, p. 56. 
^Ibid., p. 34. 

^ Second Annual Report, p. 49. 
« Ibid., p. 82. 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 99 

FLUCTUATION OF EMPLOYMENT AMONG 6,449 "REGULAR" 

WORKERS IN MASSACHUSETTS DEPARTMENT 

STORES, BY OCCUPATIONS 32 

Per cent, of workers employed for — 

Occupation , ^ ^ 

12 months 9 months 6 months 

Saleswomen 18.0 61.8 73.4 

Office employees 39.3 70.2 78.6 

Counter cashiers and examiners . . . . 15.3 41.8 57.3 

Messengers and bundlers 8.1 31.7 _48.9 

Alteration workroom 5.9 65.6 75.7 

Millinery workroom 3.6 35.9 52.1 

Stock girls 14.5 43.6 58.2 

In the dress and waist industry in New York City 
it was found that a greater amount of time was lost by 
piece-workers than by week-workers, altho the average 
percentage of employment was practically the same. In 
four representative shops, two manufacturing low-grade 
($9 per dozen) waists and two medium grade ($16.50 
to $36 per dozen) waists, the following condition was 
found to prevail: 

Per cent, average weekly wage 
is of highest weekly wage 

Grade of Shop , -*• — » 

Week-workers Piece-workers 

$9 grade shop 71 68 

Medium grade shop 77 62 

This condition prevailed in shops where both piece- 
and time-workers are employed and which are known as 
piece-work shops. In shops where time-work prevails, 
the differences in the employment and loss of wages by 
the two classes of workers are much more pronounced, 
the tendency being to retain only the best workers dur- 

^2 Compiled from Second Annual Report of Massachusetts Minimum Wage 
Commission, p. 124. The statistics exclude all employees employed for less 
than a month during the year. 



lOO CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

ing the slack season and to drop or to take on other 
workers as the trade demands.^^ 

The Extent of Unemployment 

Not until within recent years has the seriousness of 
the problem of unemployment been comprehended 
sufficiently to create a demand for some actual measure 
of the number of unemployed workers at any given time 
or during any period in the nation as a whole, or in a 
state, an industry or trade. Gradually, in response to 
this need for basic facts, an appreciable amount of data 
is being accumulated. Thus far the process of collect- 
ing this information has been so unorganized, so varied 
in its methods and scope, and so uncertain as to the time 
and the extent of its collection, that there is yet no 
statistical basis for even a very rough estimate of the ex- 
tent of unemployment in the United States. All students 
of the problem of unemployment have early discovered 
themselves to be in the same situation as the British 
Royal Commission on the Poor Laws, which, by the 
way, had far more elaborate sources of information 
available than exist in this country. The Commission 
said: 

"We have found ourselves unable to answer two 
elementary questions. There are no statistics available 
which enable us to compute, even within hundreds of 
thousands, how many persons are at any one time 
simultaneously in distress from unemployment, or 
whether this number is or is not greater, relatively or 

»8 Wages and Regularity of Employment in the Dress and Waist Industry, 
New York; U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bulletin No. 146, pp. 174-176. 



IN ^AMERICAN INDUSTRIES loi 

absolutely, than the corresponding numbers for other 
countries at the present time, or for our own countries 
at previous times."^* 

The actual number of unemployed persons at any 
given time or place is a matter of less importance in 
considering the problem of unemployment, than is the 
interpretation of the problem in terms of working time 
lost by workers, its effect upon the workers, or its eco- 
nomic and social causes. It is important, however, in 
this respect, that the magnitude of the problem should 
be indicated in a numerical manner. Not only is it 
necessary to know how many are unemployed in order 
to know what measure of relief is needed to keep them 
from physical suffering and actual starvation, but it is 
necessary to have some means of measuring the maxi- 
mum supply of labor for which there appears to be no 
demand, or, if there be a demand, of indicating the 
inadequacy of existing methods of equalizing demand 
and supply, of "bringing the man and the job together." 
Again, statistics of unemployed persons are valuable — ' 
even necessary — as a means of impressing upon the 
student, the legislator, and the public generally the 
sheer magnitude of the fact of unemployment as a 
social problem. 

Altho almost yearly there appear accounts in the press 
of multitudes out of work, exact information as to the 
amount of unemployment is lacking. For, it is safe to 
say, the actual number out of work at any time — even 
in periods of normal activity — is much greater than is 

"Minority Report, p. 570. 



I02 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

ordinarily supposed. The average well-to-do citizen is 
scarcely aware of the existence of this problem of indus- 
try, and his attention is rarely called to it except in times 
of unusual depression by the appeal of the seedy-looking 
individual on the street or by the demands made upon 
his purse by agents of charitable and religious organiza- 
tions. There is an urgent necessity for more complete 
and more exact data, not alone for the purpose of know- 
ing what the situation is in order to discover adequate 
remedies, but also for the purpose of awakening public 
attention to the existence of the problem itself. 

Some idea of the extent of unemployment is sug- 
gested, however, by statistics that have been obtained in 
this country by the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. 
The results of the Bureau's investigation into the amount 
of unemployment in New York City in February, 19 15, 
appeared to indicate an estimate of the total number of 
unemployed at that time of approximately 338,000. It 
closely corroborated an investigation two months earlier 
by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company which in- 
dicated that something like 420,000 were out of em- 
ployment. These figures represented an abnormal situa- 
tion because they were obtained in a period of industrial 
depression.^^ The report of the mayor's committee on 
unemployment in New York City estimated that there 
were 200,000 more unemployed in December, 19 14, 
than in the corresponding month in 19 13. It should 

85 A later investigation conducted on the same plan and in the same area 
by the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicated that the number of unemployed 
in September, 1915, was 164,500, In September the seasonal demand for labor 
was much greater and was augmented by a greater industrial activity. 



IN 'AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 103 

also be remembered that there is a tendency for those 
out of work to flock from smaller localities to the larger 
cities; many deliberately relinquish positions in small 
towns and cities in the hope of bettering themselves 
financially and in order to satisfy cravings for a 
"livelier" manner of living. Satistics of unemployed 
persons in large cities, especially New York, must be 
considered with this well-known fact in mind. 

The Bureau of Labor Statistics unemployment inquiry 
in New York was followed by similar investigations in 
2y other cities in 1915.^® The results of these inquiries 
are summarized in the tabulation on p. 104. 

In the 436,418 families visited, 693,691 wage-earners 
were found. Of this number 80,173, or 1 1.6 per cent, 
of all wage-earners in the families visited, were wholly 
unemployed, and in addition thereto 116,623 part-time 
workers, or 16.8 per cent., were reported as unemployed. 
The highest percentages of unemployment were found in 
Duluth, Minnesota, and Portland, Oregon, where ap- 
proximately 20 per cent, of the wage-earners were out 
of work. The lowest percentages of unemployment 
were found in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and Ogden, 
Utah, where less than 5 per cent, were unemployed. 
'Kmong cities showing the highest percentages of part- 
time workers were Wilkes-Barre, 32.3 per cent. ; Pitts- 
burgh, 29 per cent. ; Milwaukee, 28.9 per cent. ; Bridge- 
port, 19.9 per cent. ; Philadelphia, 19.6 per cent. ; Duluth, 

^' These investigations were made for the Bureau of Labor Statistics by 
agfents of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company who visited the homes 
of wage-earners where policyholders live'. 



104 



CONDITIONS OF LABOR 



UNEMPLOYMENT IN 27^ CITIES AS SHOWN BY INVESTIGATION 
DURING MARCH AND APRIL, AND IN JUNE AND JULY, 1915 " 





1^ 


it 


Unemployed 


Part-time 


wage- 




rt c4 






earners 




•si 






A 


A 






f 






'^ 




|! 


i^' 


u 


i 


u 


*i 


Cities 


i;S 


& (3 u 


1 


u 


:3 


S5 




^ 


^ 


^ 


^ 


^ 


^ 


Boston . . . . 


46,649 


77,419 


7,863 


10.2 


13,426 


17.3 


Bridgeport . . 


8,144 


12,533 


537 


4.3 


2,493 


19.9 


Chicago 


96,579 


157,616 


20,952 


13.3 


16,575 


10.5 


Cleveland . . . . 


16,851 


24,934 


2,348 


9.4 


3,060 


12.3 


Duluth 


1,383 


2,089 


425 


20.3 


371 


17.8 


Kansas City.. .. 


14,890 


22,512 


2,815 


12.5 


1,979 


8.8 


Milwaukee . . 


8,813 


13,112 


1,030 


7.9 


3,788 


28.9 


Minneapolis. . 


2,206 


3,449 


476 


13.8 


183 


5.3 


Philadelphia 


79,058 


137,244 


14,147 


10.3 


26,907 


19.6 


Pittsburgh . . . . 


36,544 


53,336 


5,942 


11.1 


15,474 


29.0 


St. Louis .. .. 


65,979 


104,499 


14,219 


13.6 


14,317 


13.7 


Springfield, Mo. . . 


1,584 


2,284 


162 


7.1 


32 


1.4 


St. Paul 


2,515 


4,135 


582 


14.1 


142 


3.4 


Toledo 


7,233 


10.312 


1,102 


10.7 


1,801 


17.5 


Wilkes-Barre 


11,453 


18,884 


1,200 


6.4 


6,104 


32.3 


Butte, Mont. 


3,557 


4,229 


298 


7.0 


536 


12.7 


Los Angeles, Cal. . 


5,621 


7,227 


822 


11.4 


1,744 


24.1 


Oakland, Cal. .. 


2,927 


4,256 


510 


12.0 


1,144 


26.9 


Ogden, Utah 


581 


887 


40 


4.5 


127 


14.3 


Portland, Ore. . . 


1,783 


2,347 


469 


20.0 


406 


17.3 


Sacramento, Cal. . 


1,288 


1,856 


170 


9.2 


439 


23.7 


Salt Lake City, 














Utah 


1,052 


1,664 


173 


10.4 


295 


17.7 


San Diego, Cal... 


1,466 


1,828 


305 


16.7 


533 


29.2 


San Francisco, Cal. 


5,320 


7,749 


1,206 


15.6 


1,971 


25.4 


Seattle, Wash. .. 


10,112 


13,473 


1,713 


12.7 


1,992 


14.8 


Spokane, Wash... 


1,012 


1,259 


210 


16.7 


257 


20.4 


Tacoraa, Wash. .. 


1,818 


2,558 


457 


17.9 


527 


20.6 



Total 



..436,418 693,691 



80,173 



11.6 



116,623 



16.8 



17.8 per cent.; Toledo, 17.5 per cent.; Boston, 17.3 per 
cent., and the California cities. 

Of less value in showing the actual proportion of 
wage-earners out of work, but containing other sug- 
gestive data, are estimates for March, 19 14, obtained 

3'U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Monthly Review, November. 1915, 
pp. 6'7, The investigations in the first 15 cities in the list given in the table 
were made in March and April, 1915, and in the last 12 cities in the list were 
made in June and July, 1915. 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 



105 



by the Federal Commission on Industrial Relations from 
municipal police departments, hitherto unpublished. 
These estimates, so far as they relate to the actual num- 
ber of unemployed males, are probably underestimates 
and were supplied to precinct heads by officers on their 
various "beats." They are summarized in the following 
tabulation : 

STATEMENT OF POLICE OF AMERICAN CITIES REGARDING 

NUMBER AND CHARACTER OF THE UNEMPLOYED 

MALES IN MARCH, 1914 

Per cent, of total males who are 





i« 





i 


^ 




e« 




S'C 






V 




.S 




^1 
eg 

1^ 






1. 


1 

•0 


1 


>> 


City 


1.S 

3 3 


3 1 


*s S 




1 








^ 


H 


« 


C/3 


fn 


< 


Boston 


.. 18 


8,360 


90.5 


17.1 


82.9 


92.6 


New York 


.. 89 


90,793 


a 79.6 


a 43.9 


&59.8 


b75.7 


Newark .. 


.. 7 


3,186 


64.7 


41.7 


53.2 


82.9 


Jersey City 


7 


2,493 


89.7 


26.8 


50.6 


a 76.2 


Buffalo . . 


.. 14 


13,312 


56.6 


30.6 


42.4 


83.3 


Philadelphia 


.. 40 


26,921 


86.3 


36.5 


44.8 


75.9 


Baltimore. . 


.. 8 


7,516 


91.6 


21.8 


30.0 


82.0 


Milwaukee 


5 


7,652 


89.2 


25.3 


63.5 


86.6 


Chicago . . 


.. 41 


45,730 


83.5 


28.0 


70.4 


77.4 


Minneapolis 


.. 6 


5,250 


79.5 


15.6 


34.4 


C69.5 


St. Louis . . 


.. 6 


10,411 


93.6 


26.6 


32.5 


83.8 


Kansas City 


9 


2,245 


53.2 


28.4 


22.4 


85.1 


San Francisco 


. 10 


14,110 


53.5 


21.8 


a 41.4 


86.1 


a No data 


from one 


precinct. 










fcNo data 


from two 


precincts. 











Disregarding the actual figures for unemployed per- 
sons, the foregoing table suggests some significant con- 
siderations : ( I ) The proportion actually seeking work 
was so large as decisively to refute the assertion fre- 
quently heard that the unemployed are chiefly those who 
do not want to work and are charity seekers. It must 



lo6 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

be remembered that these figures are given by police- 
men who can not be accused of overestimating the 
motives of the idle men on their "beats." (2) The per- 
centage of unemployed v^rho v^ere residents of the pre- 
cincts in which data were obtained varied according to 
cities, but with the exception of some localities in sec- 
tions where the seasonal labor problem was most acute, 
the proportion at home was extremely high. (3) About 
three- fourths of the unemployed were unskilled work- 
men, and, except in the inland cities, the majority of these 
were foreign-born. 

The Federal Bureau of Labor's Cost of Living study 
found that of 24,402 wage-earners who were heads of 
families with annual incomes of less than $1,200, 49.81 
per cent, were involuntarily idle some time during 1901. 
The statistics by states are perhaps not representative 
enough of local conditions because in some states the 
number of families was too small, but the variation in 
proportion of idle heads of families according to geo- 
graphical divisions suggested important differences in 
the intensity of the problem in different sections of the 
country, as follows :^^ 

Total heads Per cent, idle 

of families during year 

North Atlantic States 13,218 49.30 

South Atlantic States 2,050 51.71 

North Central States 7,166 48.42 

South Central States 1,135 74.98 

Western States 833 30.85 

Total 24,402 49.81 

38 Eighteenth Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labor, 1903, pp. 42, 
286, 287. 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 107 

The statistics furnished by representative unions in 
New York and Massachusetts and pubHshed in the 
public reports of these states are illuminating because 
they indicate in a general way the extent of unemploy- 
ment in large bodies of organized workers where 
precautions against unemployment are more possible and 
successful than among unorganized workers. The New 
York reports from representative unions show that the 
mean monthly percentage of idleness for the eight-year 
period 1907-1914 was 22, varying from 16.2 to 29,7.^^ 
Similar reports from practically all unions in New York 
state at the end of September for each year from 1897 
to 19 14 showed an average for the 18-year period 
of 1 1 per cent., varying from 4.7 to 24.4}^ 

The foregoing statistics suggest, at least, the magni- 
tude of the problem of unemployment. The union 
records published by the state governments of New 
York and Massachusetts indicate a considerable extent 
of unemployment among large groups of organized 
workers during periods of several years; it will be 
shown in the succeeding chapter how the percentages 
of unemployed union members has varied according 
to years of industrial activity and depression. The 
surveys of unemployment in the spring of 19 15 were 
made in a period of industrial depression, and thus are 
illustrative of the extent of unemployment when un- 
employment was unusually prevalent. On the other 
hand, the recent period of unusual industrial activity, 

» Bulletin of the New York Department of Labor, No. 69, p. 5. 
" Ibid., p. 14. 



io8 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

which began in the summer of 191 5, has brought about 
an employment situation almost unprecedented in the 
last decade. The restriction of immigration resulting 
from the European conflict, the stimulation of muni- 
tions manufactures by European "war orders," the in- 
creased domestic demand for the products of nearly all 
basic industries, and the unusually large harvests, of- 
fered opportunity for work to practically every avail- 
able worker in the industrial centers and sections of the 
United States. "Activity in the market for labor," was 
the comment of one observer, "during December, 191 5, 
was greater than for any December since 1906. In view 
of the scarcity in immigrant labor, which now appears 
to prevail in most industrial localities in the Eastern 
States, it may not be going too far to say that the 
employment situation was even better than for any 
similar month in the last fifteen or twenty years." *^ 
The same authority published monthly statistics from 
public free employment offices in the principal industrial 
centers which afforded unmistakable signs of the marked 
difference in the employment situation in 19 15 and 1916.*^ 
The following table, for example, showed a marked 
contrast between the situation in January, 19 16, and 
January 191 5, the number of applicants for work placed 
in jobs being used as the index of the situation. (See 
table on p. 109.) 

The fact that there were applicants for work even in 
the "boom" period which existed in the winter of 191 5- 

" The Labor Gazette, Washington, D. C, February, 1916, p. 45. 
*^Ibid., March, 1916, p. 62. 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 109 

NUMBER OF WORKERS PLACED IN JOBS BY PUBLIC FREE 

EMPLOYMENT OFFICES IN VARIOUS CITIES, JANUARY, 

1915, COMPARED WITH JANUARY, 1916, AND PER 

CENT. OF INCREASE OR DECREASE 

Per cent, of 
1915 1916 increase 

Fall River, Mass 67 111 65 

New Haven, Conn 103 312 202 

Hartford, Conn 103 380 268 

Springfield, Mass 209 683 227 

Boston, Mass 683 1,485 117 • 

Detroit, Mich 704 2,831 302 

Kalamazoo, Mich 175 362 103 

St. Paul, Minn 415 856 106 

Duluth, Minn 453 772 70 

Minneapolis, Minn 903 1,141 26 

St. Joseph, Mo 321 463 44 

Cincinnati, Ohio 2,384 887 63a 

Cleveland, Ohio 3,922 3,339 10a 

Columbus, Ohio 641 1,147 79 

Dayton, Ohio 329 730 122 

Toledo, Ohio 336 1,149 257 

Milwaukee, Wis 713 1,436 101 

Kansas City, Mo 173 102 41a 

Fort Worth, Tex 143 155 8 

a Decrease. 

191 6, however, is significant. At that time there was 
frequent comment in the trade and commercial press 
on the possibility of an actual scarcity of labor in the 
United States; yet there undoubtedly were unemployed 
persons capable of performing labor when the oppor- 
tunity should present itself, even in a period of re- 
stricted immigrant labor supply and unusual demand for 
labor. In some industries and localities where the de- 
mand for labor as plainly abnormal, a scarcity in the 
labor supply was experienced, as increases in wages and 
decreases in the length of the working day seemed to 
indicate. Much of the increased demand was, however, 



no CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

met by full time employment of the existing labor 
force.*^ 

The condition seems to be indicated, therefore, that, 
only when the supply of foreign labor is cut off and 
industries are operating at an abnormal capacity, 
is there nearly enough work for all in this country — 
if by "work" is meant the opportunity to labor regu- 
larly. It is impossible to escape the conclusion that 
in periods of so-called "normal" industrial activity, as 
well as in periods of depressions, with an unrestricted 
immigrant labor supply and without adequately organ- 
ized and administered employment offices, a large num- 
ber of wage-earners must be unemployed because of the 
lack of opportunity to be employed, to say nothing of 
other causes which may prevent them from working 
regularly. 

** The Labor Gasette, in its December, 1915, review of the employment 
situation, made the following comment: "A careful review of conditions can 
not, of course, warrant the conclusion that there is a general scarcity of labor 
in the United States, in spite of the greatly increased industrial activity and 
the diminished immigrant supply. There does appear to be a scarcity in cer- 
tain trades and in certain sections and localities where industrial activity has 
assumed abnormal proportions. Thus there seems to^ be an inadequate supply 
of mechanics and skilled metal workers because of the abnormal demand re- 
sulting from a suddenly increased production of munitions and a greatly in- 
creased activity in steel and allied manufactures, especially in certain localities. 
Again, in some sections where industrial activity has been below normal for 
some years, the sudden demand for labor has exhausted the local supply. . . . 
But such conditions as these are apparently met, for the most part, by gradual 
adjustments. Trades and occupations in which a scarcity has been evidenced 
are being recruited, and labor is being shifted from some sections to others 
as the opportunity for advantageous employment becomes known. Further- 
more, much of the increased demand for labor is only an apparent demand, 
so far as the need for an actually larger number of workers is concerned. 
More labor is being performed and more wages — and in some cases higher 
wages — are being paid, but these are merely indications of a condition where 
the "slack" of irregular employment is being taken up. In other words, many 
plants operating for several years on part time are now operating steadily and 
regularly, and much of the present increased production is made possible with 
the same force or with a slightly increased force." (p. 14.) 

Note. — ^Three other reports on the number of unemployed may be mentioned 
here, but their value has been gravely questioned. One is the Rhode Island 
Census of unemployed persons in March 1908, and the other two are the 



IN 'AMERICAN INDUSTRIES in 

Federal Census reports for 1890 and 1900. The 1890 Census report may be 
rejected entirely, while the 1900 report was issued with careful warning as to 
its reliability. Since the statistics include children over 10 years of age who 
attended school during the year, as well as other individuals who 
voluntarily were only occasional workers, it is obvious that the two Federal 
Census reports, even if entirely reliable as to accuracy, do not touch the real 
problem. The results of the Rhode Island Census and of the 1900 Federal 
Census are summarized below: 

The Census report on unemployment showed that of 5,772,641 males 10 
years of age and over engaged in manufacturing and mechanical pursuits, 
1,631,057, or 28.3 per cent., were unemployed at some time during the year, 
and that of 1,312,668 females 10 years of age and over in the same class of 
occupation, 294,346, or 22.4 per cent., were unemployed. Thus, nearly 2,000,000 
workers, or 27.2 per cent,, of the total engaged in manufacturing and mechani- 
cal pursuits, were out of work in 1900. Taking both sexes in all occupations — 
agricultural, professional, domestic, and personal, trade and transportation, 
manufacturing and mechanical — the formidable total of 6,468,974 persons were 
out of work at some time during the year. These constituted 22.3 per cent, 
of the total number engaged in these classes of occupations. (See Twelfth 
Census, 1900; Occupations, p. ccxxviii.) 

The Rhode Island Census of unemployed persons in 1908 has been seriously 
questioned as to accuracy. Moreover, it was made during March of that year, 
a period of abnormal industrial activity. The Census showed that there were 
18,292 unemployed persons among those habitually at work, while replies from 
manufacturers in the state indicated that there were 19,121 fewer persons em- 
ployed on February 28, 1908, than on February 28, 1907. Unfortunately, the 
only statistics of the total number of wage-earners were those afforded by the 
Federal Census of 1905, which were obviously useless for purposes of com- 
parison. (See Twenty-second Report of Industrial Statistics, Rhode Island, 
1908.) 



112 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 



IV 



CONDITIONS CAUSING IRREGULAR 
EMPLOYMENT 

Nearly all discussions of unemployment have re- 
garded it as peculiarly a problem of industry and have 
accordingly emphasized those causes of loss in working 
time which lie in industrial organization and method. 
Without minimizing the relative significance of indus- 
trial and social causes, it is perhaps equally important to 
look at the problem from the viewpoint of the worker. 
To introduce our consideration of the causes of loss in 
working time by the wage-earner, let us ask : First, what 
are the causes of unemployment and lost time as the 
worker sees them? Second, what is the relative im- 
portance of these causes in the worker's actual ex- 
perience ? 

Several of the investigations, the results of which have 
already been referred to, afford data on the points sug- 
gested by these questions. It must be borne in mind that 
they are by no means exactly accurate statistically; they 
do, however, suggest some considerations whose im- 
portance has not been adequately recognized in treating 
the unemployment problem. 

Perhaps the most comprehensive data available for 
answers to the two questions are furnished in the statis- 
tics of wage-earners' families secured by the Federal 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 113 

Bureau of Labor's Cost of Living investigation in 1901. 
Of the 24,402 families for which unemployment data 
were obtained, it was found that the heads of 12,154 
families were idle for some period during the year, 
which averaged 9.43 weeks. The causes of the idleness 
of these 12,154 heads of families were investigated and 
the following statistics secured showing the principal 
causes, the per cent, of heads of families idle for each 
cause, and the average "weeks idle" in each case. These 
causes together accounted for 93 per cent, of all cases 
of idleness. 

PER CENT. OF HEADS OF 12,154 FAMILIES OF WORKINGMEN IDLE 
IN 1901. BY PRINCIPAL CAUSES * 

Per cent, idle 

based on heads Average 

Causes of Idleness of families weeks 

idle idle 

Accident 1.66 8.98 

Bad weather 2.25 9.32 

Establishment closed 4.30 8.58 

Sickness 22.54 7.71 

Sickness and establishment closed ... .. .95 11.91 

Sickness and slack work 1.67 10.33 

Sickness and vacation 1.11 5.32 

Sickness and unable to get work . . . . 3.70 14.15 

Slack work 13.05 9.79 

Strike 2.07 9.65 

Unable to get work 33.29 10.90 

Vacation 6.45 2.61 

Causes of unemployment among women workers in 
Indiana department stores and garment factories were 
ascertained by the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 
cooperation with the Federal Commission on Industrial 
Relations and the Indiana Commission on Working 

* From Eighteenth Annual Report of the United States Commissioner of 
Labor, 1902, p. 45. 



114 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

Women. Statements of reasons for unemployment were 
obtained from 493 women workers in department stores 
and 453 women workers in garment factories who lost 
working time in six principal cities and towns. These 
statistics are not regarded as exact, but are believed to 
be sufficiently accurate to indicate ''tendencies." They 
are summarized in the following tables : 

CAUSES OF UNEMPLOYMENT AND THEIR RELATIVE IMPORTANCE 

AMONG 493 WOMEN WORKERS IN INDIANA DEPARTMENT 

STORES RESPECTING UNEMPLOYMENT » 

Per cent, of Per cent. 

Causes women reporting of time 

unemployment idle 

For causes connected with the industry : 

Layoff 4.1 4.4 

Other reasons 0.8 1.8 

For personal causes: 

Voluntary vacation 71.0 16.6 

Illness 29.2 17.9 

Other reasons 51.3 58.6 

CAUSES OF UNEMPLOYMENT AND THEIR RELATIVE IMPORTANCE 

AMONG 453 WOMEN WORKERS IN INDIANA GARMENT 

FACTORIES REPORTING UNEMPLOYMENT » 

Per cent, of Per cent 

Causes women reporting of time 

unemployment idle 

For causes connected with the industry : 

Layoff 39.7 16.6 

Lay off because of floods 12.1 1.3 

Other causes 3.5 7.4 

For personal causes : 

Voluntary vacation 40.2 10.9 

Illness 52.8 45.1 

Other reasons 29.8 16.9 

'Bulletin No. 160, Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1914; Hours, Earnings, and 
Conditions of Labor of Women in Indiana Mercantile Establishments and 
Garment Factories, p. 52. 

^ Ibid., p. 88. The explanation of the terms employed in the classification of 
causes of unemployment in the above tables, as given by the Bureau of Labor 
Statistics, is that the term "other causes" connected with the industry, included 
strikes, vacations taken in order to avoid the stigma of being laid off, and 
blacklisting, and that "other personal reasons" include "illness in the worker's 
family, conditions or responsibilities which demanded her presence at home 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 115 

Of the fifteen hundred comparatively steady employed 
women in confectionery, paper box and shirt factories 
and in retail stores in the state of New York, who 
were interviewed by agents of the New York State 
Factory Investigating Commission in 19 13- 19 14, 1,000 
had lost on an average one month during the preceding 
year. Dr. H. B. Woolston, director of the investigation 
for the Commission, comments as follows: 

"Two or three weeks were usually accounted for by 
slack work or no jobs; one or two weeks were due to 
illness or family troubles. Holidays and vacations are 
a cause of loss to many factory hands, because many 
are not paid for time off, and for piece-workers days 
out are always a sacrifice. In stores, the majority of 
employees have a week or two off in the summer, with 
half or full pay. But in some places a partial shut- 
down is an excuse for obligatory vacations."^ 

The foregoing statistics picture the causes of unem- 
ployment from the point of view of the worker for a 
year's time. The question suggests itself, is the relative 
importance of the causes named constant in all years, or 
does it vary from year to year? 

Unfortunately, there is no way of studying the same 
individuals from whom the above data were obtained 
for a series of years. There are, however, some statis- 
tics of causes of unemployment for a series of years 

idleness through choice, etc." "Voluntary vacation" included "only such time 
as was voluntarily taken by the worker for rest and recreation." 

"The line of demarcation," says the Bulletin, "has necessarily been rather 
difficult to draw, but the classification has been followed as closely as possi- 
ble." (p. 53.) 

* The Survey, xxxiii, p. 508, February 6, 1915. 



ii6 



CONDITIONS OF LABOR 



which indicate tendencies to corroborate conclusions that 
are afforded from other data. The following tabula- 
tion contains statistics furnished by secretaries of repre- 
sentative labor unions in Massachusetts, which, while 



REPRESENTATIVE MASSACHUSETTS UNIONS— PERCENTAGE 
UNEMPLOYED 1908-1914, BY CAUSES ^ 



Quarters Ending 


All 
Causes 


Lack of 
Work or 
Material 


Unfavor- Strikes 

able or 
Weather Lockouts 


Dis- 
ability 


Other 
Causes a 


March 31, 1908 .. . 

June 30, 1908 

September 30, 1908 
December 31, 1908 


. 17.9 
. 14.4 
. 10.6 
. 13.9 


16.2 
12.5 
8.7 
11.0 


0.2 
0.1 
0.0 & 
0.5 


0.7 
0.3 
0.5 
0.7 


0.7 
1.2 
1.2 
1.2 


0.1 
0.3 
0.2 
0.5 


March 31, 1909 .. . 

June 30, 1909 

September, 30, 1909 
December, 31, 1909 


. 11.4 
. 6.4 

. 4.8 
. 9.4 


9.5 
4.6 
3.4 
4.9 


0.1 
0.0 & 
0.1 
2.4 


0.2 
0.3 
0.1 
0.1 


1.3 
1.2 
1.1 
1.2 


0.3 
0.3 
0.1 
0.8 


March 31, 1910 .. . 

June 30, 1910 

September 30, 1910 
December 31, 1910 


. 7.1 
. 7.0 
. 5.6 
. 10.2 


5.3 
5.4 
4.0 
7.3 


0.1 
0.0 & 
0.1 
1.2 


0.1 
0.1 
0.1 
0.1 


1.4 
1.2 
1.3 
1.2 


0.2 
0.3 
0.1 
0.4 


March 31, 1911 .. . 
June 30, 1911 .. . 
September 30, 1911 
December 30,c 1911 . 


. 10.4 
. 6.6 
. 5.6 
. 9.7 


7.5 
4.2 
3.7 
6.0 


0.7 
0.2 
0.2 
1.6 


0.1 
0.5 
0.3 
0.1 


1.4 
1.2 
1.2 
1.3 


0.7 
0.5 
0.2 
0.7 


March 30, c 1912 . . . 
June 29, c 1912 .. . 
September, 30, 1912 
December 31, 1912 . 


. 14.1 

. 5.3 

. 4.7 

9.1 


5.1 
3.4 
3.0 
6.4 


1.0 
0.0 & 
0.1 
0.6 


6.3 
0.4 
0.3 
0.6 


1.3 
1.3 
1.2 
1.2 


0.4 
0.2 
0.1 
0.3 


March 31, 1913 .. . 
June 30, 1913 .. . 
September 30, 1913 
December 31, 1913 


. 11.3 
. 6.4 
. 6.8 
. 10.4 


7.3 
4.3 
4.3 
7.3 


0.5 
0.1 
0.5 
0.7 


1.6 
0.7 
0.6 
0.5 


1.4 

1.2 
1.2 
1.4 


0.5 
0.1 
0.2 
0.5 


March 31, 1914 .. . 
June 30, 1914 . . . 
September 30, 1914 
December 31, 1914 


. 12.9 
. 9.9 
. 11.0 
. 18.3 


9.2 

6.9 

8.5 

14.9 


0.7 
0.3 
0.2 
1.1 


0.6 
0.7 
0.5 
0.1 


1.6 

1.2 
1.5 
1.5 


0.8 
0.8 
0.3 
0.7 



a Including vacations, temporary shut-downs for repairs, stock-taking, etc. 

h Less than 0.05 per cent. 

c Owing to the fact that the respective dates — December 31, 1911, March 31, 
1912, and June 30, 1912 — fell on Sunday, the date chosen for the returns in each 
case was the day preceding. 

6 Report on the Statistics of Labor, Massachusetts, 1915, Part ix, p. 39. 



IN 'AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 117 

not absolutely exact, are accurate enough to point un- 
mistakably to certain facts. 

The following tendencies appear to be indicated by 
the above statistics: 

(i) Disability of the worker is a fairly constant 
cause of unemployment from season to season and from 
year to year. 

(2) Weather conditions as a cause of unemployment 
vary in intensity chiefly according to season, becoming 
an important factor in winter. 

(3) Labor disputes, as shown by the New York 
figures, appear to be a more prolific cause of unemploy- 
ment in periods of low unemployment. 

(4) Lack of work as a cause varies in intensity ac- 
cording to season and according to year, following the 
seasonal and cyclical fluctuations in industrial activity. 

(5) Taking all occupations and industries together, 
of the two most important causes of unemployment, 
from the worker's standpoint, disability (chiefly due to 
sickness), and lack of work, the former is a fairly con- 
stant factor while the latter is a very variable factor.® 
The general term, "lack of work," covers all conditions 
governing the opportunity to be employed. 

Analysis of the Causes of Loss in Working Time or 
Unemployment 

The causes of loss in working time by wage-earners, 
as suggested in the foregoing statistics — accident, clos- 

* Some of these tendencies are noted in the comment upon similar statis- 
tics by Frank B. Sargent, U. S. Bureau of Labor Bulletin, 109, Statistics of 
Unemployment and the Work of Employment Offices, 1912. 



Ii8 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

ing down of plants, sickness, slack work, vacations, 
strikes, bad weather and the like — ^have been variously 
classified by writers and in reports on unemployment 
according to the point of view from which the problem 
has been investigated and discust. 

Taking into consideration all the factors that have 
been treated in the various analyses, and looking at the 
problem of unemployment from the standpoint of loss in 
working time as a condition of labor, there appear to 
be three general groups of causes: 

(i) Evolutionary changes in industry and in social 
habits and movements which affect the character and 
the extent of the demand for labor, as well as the 
character and the quality of the labor supply. 

(2) Conditions, methods and character of industry 
which affect the steadiness of the demand for labor. 

(3) Conditions determining the worker's ability to 
grasp or retain the opportunity to be employed that 
industry offers. 

It must be apparent that the distinction between "in- 
dustrial" and "personal" causes, which some analyses 
have attempted, is misleading. It is impossible to say 
that there is any one group of causes — or any single 
principal cause, for that matter — which affects only the 
employer or only the employee. Both are affected by all 
three of the fundamental causes named above. The 
employer is governed by social conventions, by climatic 
conditions, by methods peculiar to his line of manufac- 
turing, and by the efficiency of the worker, in the 
amount and kind of employment he offers. A worker's 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 119 

efficiency or ability to hold his job when other workers 
are being laid off is affected by the nature and regularity 
of his employment and of his work no less than by the 
efficacy of his income to meet the necessity for healthful 
conditions of living, or by the character of other ele- 
ments in his mental and physical environment. It is 
hard to fix the responsibility. 

The main fact which every careful analysis of the 
causes of unemployment has shown is this : That there 
are certain conditions, whether they lie in industry, in 
the w^orker, or in society, which necessitate the idleness 
of a large number of individuals whose welfare depends 
on their opportunity to sell their labor, and that there 
are certain conditions, not necessarily different in 
identity, which determine the worker's ability to be 
among those who are steadily employed. The two ques- 
tions most pertinent here are these : ( i ) How does the 
worker lose working time? (2) In what way or ways 
does he lose the most time? 

With this point of view the principal facts may be 
summarized briefly. 

Evolutionary Changes Affecting Employment 

These changes may be grouped in two classes: (i) 
Changes in industry and in industrial organization 
and location which affect the character of the de- 
mand for labor; (2) changes in the quantity and the 
character of the supply of labor. These two groups of 
causes of unemployment are evolutionary. They are 



I20 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

peculiarly social forces which operate outside of the 
field of immediate control of either the employer or 
the employee and to which both employers and em- 
ployees must adjust themselves in the best way they 
may. Yet it is a familiar fact that in this unceasing 
process of adjustment the employers are in a more ad- 
vantageous position than the workers who, regardless 
of their merits, to quote John Stuart Mill, are "sac- 
rificed to the gains of their fellow citizens and of, 
posterity." 

I. Changes in Industrial Structure and Methods. — • 
To borrow the excellent summary from Mr. W. H. 
Beveridge's "Unemployment," "Changes in industrial 
structure are constantly recurring and constantly throw- 
ing men out of employment. The very life and growth 
of industry consist in the replacement of old machines 
by new; of established processes by better ones; of 
labor in one form and combination by labor in fresh forms 
or fresh combinations. The demand for labor is thus 
in a state of flux and reconstruction both as to quality 
and as to quantity. Men who for years have satisfied 
the demand in one form may find the form suddenly 
changed; their niche in industry broken up; their hard 
won skill superfluous in a new world; themselves also 
superfluous unless they will and can learn fresh arts 
and find the way into familiar occupations. They are 
displaced by economic forces entirely beyond their con- 
trol and taking little or no account of personal merits." ' 

It has been objected that such changes are in them- 

'Page 111. 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 121 

selves not causes of unemployment, because for the most 
part they are so gradual as to permit the worker to 
adjust himself, and because his failure to adjust himself 
is really the cause of unemployment.^ Reasoning of 
this sort seems rather specious in the face of the facts. 
Unemployment, at least from the worker's point of view 
is essentially the problem of the worker's economic 
security. Anything that disturbs his security may be- 
come a cause of unemployment and loss in working time. 
Granting for the moment that changes in industrial 
structure and methods are so gradual as to permit the 
worker to adjust himself to changed conditions, it may 
pertinently be asked : Is the average worker in a posi- 
tion to foresee changes in the demand in time to make 
them, or, if he has the foresight, is he financially able 
to prepare himself for a new occupation, to move to a 
new place, and to adjust himself to new conditions of 
work and living? Furthermore, changes in demand, 
unless the worker is able to foresee them and prepare 
for them, do not come gradually. They are gradual 
when viewed from the historian's point of view, but 
to the worker they are frequently as sudden as a 
stroke of paralysis. Compared with other causes of 
actual loss of working time and unemplojmient, how- 
ever, changes in industrial structure and methods are 
unimportant. The actual percentage of unemployed 
persons for any period of time who are out of work 
for these reasons would probably be almost infinitesimal, 
if we had statistical data for comparisons. At the same 

^Ibid., p. 114. 



122 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

time, the effects of such causes upon the worker's earn- 
ings and his economic security are probably much more 
serious than the actual loss in working time occasioned, 
if the emphasis placed by labor unions on the effects of 
new machinery and of new processes can be taken as a 
true indication of the worker's point of view. 

In order to illustrate, as clearly as available data 
will allow, the character of the causes of unemploy- 
ment that exist in changes in industrial structure and 
methods, the following specific changes may be noted : 

a. Changes in demand for labor according to in- 
dustry. 

h. Changes in demand for labor according to locality. 

c. Changes in demand for labor due to the introduc- 
tion of machinery and new processes. 

d. Changes in organization of industry. 

a. Changes in Demand for Labor According to In- 
dustry. — The unequal rate of development among differ- 
ent industries is in itself a contributory factor in un- 
employment, since it means that the demand for labor 
varies in intensity both as to location and as to the kind 
of labor demanded. The potency of this factor is diffi- 
cult of measurement. Changes in demand due to it are 
not so gradual as might be assumed, for within a single 
decade — even within a period of five years — they occur 
with pronounced intensity. The following statistics 
showing the increase and decrease in the average num- 
ber of wage-earners for certain industries will indicate 
something of the rapidity of such changes : 



TN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 



123 



INCREASE IN NUMBER OF WAGE-EARNERS, 1899-1909, IN ALL 
INDUSTRIES AND IN 9 LARGEST INDUSTRIES' 

Average 

number of Per cent, of increase 

wage- ^ A ^ 

Industry earners 1899- 1904- 1899- 

1909 1909 1909 1904 

All industries 6,615,046 40.4 21.0 16.0 

Slaughtering and meat-packing 89,728 29.5 19.0 8.9 

Foundry and machine shop products .. .. 531,011 ... 19.8 ... 

Lumber and timber products 695,019 36.6 30.5 4.7 

Iron and steel, steel works and rolling mills 240,076 31.0 15.7 13.3 

Flour and grist mill products 39,453 22.4 0.9 21.4 

Printing and publishing 258,434 32.4 18.0 12.2 

Cotton goods 378,880 25.1 19.9 4.3 

Clothing, men's 239,696 52.1 38.0 10.2 

Boots and shoes 198,297 31.1 23.7 6.0 

DECREASE IN NUMBER OF WAGE-EARNERS, 1899-1909, IN 
CERTAIN INDUSTRIES 10 

Average 

number of Per cent, of decrease 

wage- , ^ ^ — ^ 

Industry earners 1899- 1904- 1899- 

1909 1909 1909 1904 

Iron and steel, blast furnaces 38,429 2.1 a 9.6 10.6 

Smelting and refining, lead 7,424 10.8 2.0 9.0 

Carriages, wagons 69,928 5.3 10.2 a 5.5 

Ship and boat building 40.506 13.4 20.2 a 8.6 

Roofing materials . . 2,465 67.5 72.0 a 16.1 

Bicycles and motorcycles 4,437 74.7 o 33.7 81.1 

a Increase. 

b. Changes in Demand for Labor According to Lo- 
cality. — The unusual growth or decline of certain in- 
dustries in Specific sections or localities has its effect 
in increasing unemployment. To meet these changes 
the worker must be able to shift his home and to adjust 
himself to new conditions in his occupation, or else have 
a smaller chance of being employed. 

The Thirteenth Census showed that, in the five-year 
period 1899- 1904, the number of wage-earners de- 
creased, for example, in localities as follows : 



• Compiled from Thirteenth Census, Vol. viii, p. 40. 

*" Compiled from Thirteenth Census, Vol. viii, pp. 40-42. 



124 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

Per cent, of decrease in 
Locality average number of wage- 

earners, 1899-1904 

Hammond, Indiana 42.3 

Portsmouth, New Hampshire .. ,. 51.8 

Fall River, Massachusetts 12.4 

Cohoes, New York 16.5 

Knoxville, Tennessee 28.6 

Augusta, Georgia 13.0 

In the five-year period 1905-1909, the following local- 
ities, for example, showed decreases: 

Per cent, of decrease in 
Locality average number of wage- 

earners, 1905-1909 

Mobile, Alabama 5,0 

New London, Connecticut 12.9 

Lowell, Massachusetts ol8.7 

O Women wage-earners only. 

During the last Census decade, a number of localities 
exhibited decreases in the average number of wage- 
earners employed in manufacturing industries, among 
which may be named the following: 

Per cent, of decrease in 
Locality number of wage-earners, 

1899-1909 

Troy, New York 12.7 

Jacksonville, Florida 25.0 

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania a7.4 

Homestead, Pennsylvania o44.3 

Pensacola, Florida 20.3 

Savannah, Georgia 15.6 

Alton, Illinois 20.9 

Cairo, Illinois 13.8 

Quincy, Illinois 12.4 

Baton Rouge, Louisiana 42.4 

Cumberland, Maryland 14.9 

Hagerstown, Maryland 22,3 

Charleston, South Carolina 16.7 

Knoxville, Tennessee • 7oS 

a Men wage-earners only. 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 125 

While in some of these instances the decreases in 
number of wage-earners may be more apparent than 
real, because of changes in city boundaries or a local 
industrial depression occurring in 1909, they are at 
least sufficient to suggest the familiar decline in in- 
dustrial activity and the demand for labor that occurs 
in localities for various reasons. 

PER CENT. OF INCREASE IN AVERAGE NUMBER OF WAGE- 
EARNERS, 1899-1909, IN CERTAIN CITIES 

City Male Female 

New York 39.2 53.1 

Chicago 30.5 54.7 

Philadelphia 15.6 28.6 

St. Louis 34.6 40.8 

Cleveland 49.1 67.3 

Detroit 129.1 64.8 

Baltimore 7.9 5.5 

Boston 20.4 49.8 

Cincinnati 9.4 7.8 

Newark 37.5 46.9 

Milwaukee 47.9 54.3 

Buffalo 49.9 54.2 

Providence 21.4 24.2 

Rochester 46.0 35.5 

Fall River 29.1 14.3 

Paterson 4.7 32.6 

Indianapolis 49.4 57.0 

Lawrence 48.5 37.8 

On the other hand, the demand for labor in certain 
localities shows varying degrees of increase in the same 
Census period. The fact that the increase in demand 
is, in itself, not uniform is an evidence of the instability 
of demand so far as locality is concerned. The effect 
is to pull the worker in directions that change over a 
period of time much shorter than the natural dura- 
tion of a wage-earner's working life. Contrasted with 



126 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

the foregoing statistics of decrease in wage-earners in 
certain localities and indicating the concentration of the 
demand for labor during the ten years from 1899 to 
1909, the percentages of increase in the average number 
of wage-earners in certain centers are interesting. 
The extraordinary increase in the number of women 
wage-earners in the majority of the cities named above 
is especially significant. It may also be noted that those 
localities showing increases in wage-earners are larger 
centers, with a few exceptions, than those localities 
exhibiting decreases. 

c. Changes in Demand for Labor Due to the In- 
troduction of Machinery and New Processes. — What- 
ever may be the opinion of students of industrial 
evolution as to the ultimate effects upon labor of the 
introduction of new mechanical methods and processes, 
there is practical unanimity as to the changes in demand 
for labor — both in quantity and in character of labor — 
as a temporary effect. In practically all instances 
where machinery has been introduced, either some 
amount of labor has been rendered unnecessary or a 
different kind of labor has been needed. In the major- 
ity of instances both changes have occurred. 

This is a fact of industry so familiar that an array 
of corroborative data is not needed here. It is perti- 
nent only to emphasize its significance as a factor 
causing unemployment and loss of working time, tem- 
porary tho it may be. One of the main grounds of the 
trade union's position with regard to the question of 
machinery and new processes, is that some workers not 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 127 

only have their pay reduced because less skilled work 
is required, but many lose their jobs entirely. Displace- 
ment of labor thus often means unemployment until 
the displaced worker is able to find the same kind of 
work in a decaying occupation, or is able to adjust him- 
self to the change in demand for labor and to other 
kinds of work, frequently in another locality. 

While there are many instances of at least tempo- 
rary displacement as an effect of the introduction of new 
processes and machinery and of calculations as to the 
number of workers that a specific machine or process 
actually displaces, there are no statistics to indicate the 
loss of working time or the extent of unemployment 
thus brought about. Some idea of the importance of 
this factor as a cause of unemployment may be sug- 
gested by a comparison of the ratio of increase or 
decrease in the number of wage-earners in an industry 
with the ratio of increase in mechanical power employed 
in the last Census decade. A few instances are 
sufficient, thus : 

Per cent, of 

Per cent, of increase in 

Industry decrease in horse-power 

average number of p^j. ^age- 

wage-earners earner 

Agricultural implements 8.5 25.0 

Cars and street railroad 0.1 33.0 

Iron and steel, blast furnaces .... 2.1 42.2 

Petroleum refining a 16.9 41.5 

Smelting and refining lead . . . . 10.8 52.7 

a For the five years, 1904-1909. 

"In the five years between the manufacturing cen- 
suses of 1900 and 1905," as the report of the commit- 
tee on unemployment of the New York Commission 



128 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

on Employers' Liability and Unemployment remarks, 
"out of 6i leading industries in the state of New 
York, nine suffered actual decreases in the number of 
their employees which might be traced to the introduc- 
tion of machinery. The decreases in the number of 
wage-earners are accompanied by an increase in the 
value of machinery, tools, and equipment employed." " 
The following table for New York State, compiled 
from general census statistics, is typical of what may 
be found to occur to a greater or less extent in other 
States and even in localities: 

Per cent, of 
Per cent, of increase in 

decrease in value of 

Industry average machinery, 

number of tools and 

wage-earners equipment 

Men's furnishing goods 23.0 17.0 

Leather gloves and mittens . . . . 43.0 17.0 

Leather, tanned, curried and finished 16.0 46.0 

Newspapers and periodicals .... 1.5 4,0 

Lithographing and engraving .... 2.7 2.0 

Worsted goods a 61.0 

Cotton goods 5.0 24.0 

a Practically no change. 

The change in the character of the demand due to 
the introduction of new machinery and processes is not 
indicated in statistics such as the above, but that it is 
a factor in causing unemployment through the dis- 
placement of labor can not be doubted. For, while the 
total number of workers in an industry may not be 
decreased, or may even be increased, by changes in 
process, a considerable number may be thrown out of 
employment because their occupations are eliminated. 

"Third Report, 1911, p, 44. 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 129 

It may be true that these workers have the oppor- 
tunity to be employed at the same plants in new or 
different occupations, but it is also true that a skilled 
worker, especially an artizan in hand occupations, will 
naturally try to secure work to which he has become 
accustomed and in which he has been trained else- 
where, rather than to go into new work at wages that 
usually are considerably lower than what he has been 
earning. Certainly his economic security has been 
endangered, or even weakened, and frequently actual 
unemployment occurs. 

Instances of this change in the kind of labor required 
are numerous in the history of American industry. In 
cotton spinning the tendency has been to increase the 
number of ring spindles at the expense of mule spin- 
ning. The former method allows the use of cheap, 
unskilled foreign labor. The linotype machine requires 
men of probably the same skill and intelligence as hand 
setting, altho along different lines, but it has cut down 
the number of workers required, even faster than the 
printing industry could develop. The new Huhn coal- 
mining machine will do as much work as 20 hand-pick 
miners and at half the cost. Lifting magnets, pneu- 
matic hoists and traveling cranes render unnecessary, 
not highly skilled labor, but the most unskilled. The 
old type of hand shoemaker is fast disappearing before 
the advances made by the Goodyear, McKay and other 
machines. The field of the hand-worker is constantly 
being narrowed by inventions which come closer and 
closer to the reproduction of the hand-made product. 



I30 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

d. Changes in Organization of Industry. — The con- 
centration of industries in certain localities, the intro- 
duction of machinery and new processes, the closing up 
of or failure of occasional plants, and the "decay" of 
certain trades and rise of new occupations, are, of 
course, directly traceable in a large degree to changes in 
the organization of industry. These changes, it is well 
recognized, are principally the changes brought about by 
the growth of corporate ownership and the decline of 
private operation of manufacturing establishments. It 
is only necessary, for the sake of completeness, to 
refer to changes of this character that have taken place 
in the last Census decade in order to bring to mind 
their extent even in so short a period : 

PER CENT. OF ESTABLISHMENTS UNDER CORPORATE OWNERSHIP 

IN ALL INDUSTRIES AND IN SOME OF THE PRINCIPAL 

INDUSTRIES, 1899 AND 1909, COMPARED 12 

Per cent, operated 
by corporations 

Industry ( -^ > 

1909 1899 

All industries 25.9 17.9 

Slaughtering and meat-packing 29.7 20.9 

Foundry and machine shop products . . . . 48.4 a 32.8 

Lumber and timber products 17.1 11.4 

Iron and steel, steel works and rolling mills 95.1 \ ,.-- 

Iron and steel, blast furnaces 93.8 ) 

Flour and grist mill products 19.4 15.0 

Printing and publishing 22.8 14.9 

Cotton goods 84.1 69.8 

Clothing, men's 13.0 5.4 

Boots and shoes 38.3 20.2 

Woolen and worsteds 58.7 32.9 

Hosiery and knit goods 47.4 31.1 

Clothing, women's 12.8 4.8 

o Includes "locomotives not made by railroad companies," and stoves and 
furnaces. The correct percentage for 1899 would probably be lower. 

"Thirteenth Census, Vol. viii, pp. 137-138. 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 131 

But, as the report of the New York Commission 
on Unemployment, to which reference has already been 
made, points out, there are other changes in organiza- 
tion which even more directly have resulted in unem- 
ployment. "Even without changing the ownership of 
establishments," says this report, ''reorganization of 
methods for economizing in the cost of production are 
constantly being introduced, and the effect invariably 
is to displace some workers. The industrial engineers 
who recently described to the Interstate Commerce Com- 
mission the economies they had introduced in manu- 
facturing establishments testified that the number of 
wage-earners necessary to carry on the work had been 
reduced by their system or else more work was accom- 
plished with the same number. . . . That reor- 
ganizations and business economies are a constant source 
of unemployment can not be doubted. Reports from 
five employment offices throughout the country state 
that there is an oversupply of clerks, bookkeepers and 
general mercantile help. These are the workers who 
are mostly displaced by organization and economy in 
business methods." ^^ 

2. Changes in the Quantity and Character of the 
Labor Supply. — How far social changes that affect the 
character of the labor supply, or determine the quantity, 
are related to the problem of unemployment, loss of 
working time, and the economic security of the worker, 
can not be measured. That they do have effects in 
unemployment can not be denied. Social standards 

" Supra cit., pp. 46-47. 



132 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

and movements undoubtedly play a part in determining 
the physical and mental efficiency of the worker, to say 
nothing of his moral qualities. The state of national or 
even local opinion on the liquor question is a factor, 
just as is the growth of the public health movement, 
or the recognition of a better correlation of education 
and every-day life. But these factors are not capable 
of statistical statement for a community or the nation 
as a whole, altho their influence in the life of the 
individual worker can not be doubted. We know that 
they are causes of loss of working time and of uncer- 
tainty in employment sufficiently potent to warrant the 
expenditure of a great deal more energy in the work of 
amelioration and reform than is now being expended. 

To some extent changes in the quantity and character 
of the labor supply are brought about by the demand of 
industry for labor. Whether these changes are due 
more to demand, or more to social forces, is impossible 
of statement. Apparently the increased proportion of 
unskilled, untrained workers is due to a change in the 
demand for workers, but it is also agreed that the influx 
of large numbers of immigrants into industry has made 
possible the expansion and evolution of industry that 
have resulted in the altered character of the demand. 
It is possible that a revolution in social beliefs has 
had a great deal to do with the entrance of women into 
industry; on the other hand, it is undeniable that cer- 
tain industries, employing women almost exclusively at 
wages below the minimum of subsistence, have devel- 
oped because of the opportunity afforded for parasit- 



IN 'AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 133 

ism. To what extent the entrance of women into in- 
dustrial occupations has actually caused displacement 
of male workers is yet a matter of profitless specula- 
tion. That it has had an effect in determining the quality 
as well as the quantity of the labor supply, and possibly 
has reacted upon the character of the demand for labor, 
must be conceded. Until further data are accumulated, 
the quantitative analysis of the situation is impossible. 

More definite, from the standpoint of statistical state- 
ment, is the relation of the immigration movement to 
the supply of labor. 'Their (the immigrants') num- 
bers are so great and the influx is so continuous," said 
the Federal Immigration Commission in its conclusions, 
"that even with the remarkable expansion of industry 
during the last few years, there has been created an 
oversupply of unskilled labor, and in some of the indus- 
tries this is reflected in a curtailed number of working 
days and a consequent yearly income among the un- 
skilled workers which is very much less than is indi- 
cated by the daily wage rates paid."^* The New York 
Commission on Employers' Liability and Unemploy- 
ment stated in its conclusions that "the large and con- 
tinuous additions to the laboring population of the state 
due to immigration are among the most important single 
causes of unemployment," and, that "immigration no 
doubt accounts in part for the chronic oversupply of 
labor revealed by the statistical evidence we have pre- 
sented." ^^ This report took pains to point out that 

" Reports of the Immigration Commission, Vol. i, p. 39. 
"Third Report, 1911, pp. 7-8. 



134 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

during the ten years ending June 30, 1910, some 1,041,- 
570 immigrants came to the United States. Of these 
three-fourths entered at the port of New York, and 
one-third of those entering at New York gave the state 
of New York as their ultimate destination. 

The extensive investigations of the Federal Immigra- 
tion Commission into the manufacturing and mining 
industries of the country led it to conclude that there 
was no basic industry in which unskilled immigrant 
laborers from southern and eastern Europe were not 
largely represented, in many cases constituting more 
than 50 per cent, of the total number of persons em- 
ployed in such industries. "Coincident with the advent 
of these millions of unskilled laborers," said the Com- 
mission, "there has been an unprecedented expansion 
of the industries in which they have been employed. 
Whether this great immigration movement was caused 
by the industrial development, or whether the fact that 
a practically unlimited and available supply of cheap 
labor existed in Europe was taken advantage of for 
the purpose of expanding the industries, can not well be 
demonstrated." ^® Whatever the cause, the fact seems 
to be thoroughly established that unrestricted and 
unguided immigration have caused unemployment, both 
in the form of loss of working time and of economic 
insecurity, among the workers in the industries into 
which the unskilled immigrants have come in large 
numbers. 

It is proper to note here an important qualifying con- 

^'^ Supra dt., p. 37. 



IN "AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 135 

dition. The problem of unemployment, so far as it is 
a result of cyclical depressions, is mitigated by the fluid- 
ity of the newer immigrant labor supply. A factor of 
no mean proportions is thus provided for assisting the 
natural tendency toward an equilibrium of the supply 
and demand of labor. The reports of the Commis- 
sioner-General of Immigration indicate wide yearly fluc- 
tuations in immigration which correspond so closely 
to the well-known periods of industrial activity and 
depression that they are often included in business 
barometrics. The following statistics show the num- 
ber of immigrants admitted each year since 1890:" 



Period Period 

Year ending Year ending 

June 30th Number June 30th Number 

1890 455,302 1903 857,046 

1891 560,319 1904 812,870 

1892 579.663 1905 1,026,499 

1893 439,730 1906 1,100,735 

1894 285,631 1907 1,285,349 

1895 258,536 1908 782,870 

1896 343,267 1909 751,786 

1897 230,832 1910 1,041,570 

1898 229,299 1911 878,587 

1899 311,715 1912 838.172 

1900 448,572 1913 1,387,318 

1901 487,918 1914 688,495 

1902 648,743 1915 256,678 



The investigations of the Federal Immigration Com- 
mission and the reports of the Commissioner-General of 
Immigration conclusively show that a very large pro- 
portion of newer immigrants are merely transient 

" Report of the Commissioner-General of Immigration for the fiscal year 
ending June 30, 1915. 



136 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

dwellers who come to this country to acquire a compe- 
tence and then return to their home countries. When 
employment is not available, they do not come; when 
employment ceases, they flock back to Europe. The 
European emigration into the United States in the 
extremely active year of 1907 showed 23 per cent, of 
the old immigration and yy per cent, of the new, 
whereas the difference between the immigrants of these 
two classes leaving the United States in the inactive 
year of 1908 was still more pronounced, those of the old 
immigration numbering less than 9 per cent., while the 
new formed over 90 per cent.^^ 

The fluidity of the new immigrant labor supply is 
illustrated by statistics obtained in a study of Johns- 
town, Pa., a typical iron and steel manufacturing com- 
munity, for 1907 and 1908. The foreign-born popula- 
tion in 1907 was approximately 27,000. In the year 
following, when the depression manifested itself locally 
by a 50 per cent, curtailment of work in the iron and 
steel plants, the foreign-born population dropt to 
approximately 16,000, or 40 per cent. It is signifi- 
cant to note that the migration was confined almost 
entirely to workers of the Croatian, Hungarian, Hebrew, 
Italian, Magyar, Polish, Servian and Slovak races, 
while no diminution in the number of English, Ger- 
man, Irish, Scotch and Welsh workers was noted. Only 
about two-thirds of the employees for whom data show- 
ing irregularity of employment were obtained, were 
found to have worked six months or more of the year 

isjenks and Lauck, "The Immigration Problem" (Third Edition), p. 36. 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 137 

beginning with the summer of 1907, and less than one- 
fourth worked steadily throughout the year. 

In another sense, the fluidity of the newer immi- 
grant supply mitigates the problem of unemploy- 
ment. This supply, composed largely of males without 
families, tends to go to localities where the demand 
for unskilled labor is greatest, so far as existing meth- 
ods of distributing the supply and the immigrant's 
own knowledge of the demand permit. Altho lack 
of adequate machinery for the artificial distribution 
of immigrants has resulted in the congestion of the 
newer immigrant labor supply in certain sections of the 
country and in certain manufacturing and mining indus- 
tries, the ease with which it adjusts itself to changes 
in the demand for labor is frequently marked. For 
example, in the suspensions of work in the anthracite 
field in 1906 and 19 12 incident to the making of new 
agreements between operators and miners, it was 
observed that the possible extent of the idleness occa- 
sioned was in both instances greatly lessened by the 
emigration of numbers of newer immigrant miners and 
their migration to other localities in the bituminous 
and steel manufacturing sections.^^* 

Variations in the Demand for Labor Due to Fhictuations 
and Irregularities in Industry 

In addition to changes in industry and industrial 
organization which affect the character of the demand 

^8a Sydenstricker, Edgar: Collective Bargaining in the Anthracite Industry, 
(U, S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bulletin 191, March, 1916), pp. 52, 54. 



138 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

for labor, there are certain variations in the demand for 
labor that are due to the conduct of industry. The 
former, as has been pointed out, are evolutionary 
changes ; the latter are due to factors continually present, 
and result in a more or less constant curtailment of 
the wage-earner's opportunity to work regularly. 
These variations may be classed under two heads: 

1. Fluctuations. 

2. Irregularities. 

Fluctuations are changes in demand that have been 
found to occur and recur within periods of more or less 
iixt duration, and that are cyclical and seasonal. The 
irregularities, on the other hand, are due to peculiari- 
ties in industrial organization and methods of operation 
and management in certain industries. They manifest 
themselves in the sudden closing down of plants be- 
cause of business failures that occur every year; the 
piling up of orders for speculation or other purposes; 
short time contract work; the practise of "hiring and 
firing" for each specific piece of operation; the main- 
taining of labor reserves in certain plants, etc. 

Some of these variations are nation-wide; others are 
confined to certain industries; others occur in certain 
localities and plants, and still others appear to happen 
in localities and industries without any determinant 
capable of definite statement. Altogether they render 
the worker's economic status insecure from almost 
every angle. The fact that in some industries the 
uncertainty of constant employment is greater than in 
others because of methods peculiar to those industries 



5 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 139 

results in the concentration there of the less efficient, 
lower-paid workers, which, in turn, aggravates the local 
problem of unemployment. The recurring industrial 
depressions sweep still more workers into this class, 
causing a frequent and cruel readjustment of the labor 
market. The unexpected irregularities that come from 
sudden failures, or other un forecasted causes, render 
the opportunity for employment still more fickle. And 
to these should be added the thousands of individual 
cases of discharge that result from the completion of 
a contract by a plant, the decision or whim of an 
employer without regard to the effects upon the worker, 
and many contingencies arising under a competitive 
system of industry which force employers to use 
measures for saving immediate expense rather than 
adopt policies of sound economy. 

A worker may be subject continually to the possible 
effects of all these fluctuations and irregularities; cer- 
tainly he is at all times subject to some of them. The 
actual way in which each of them affects the opportunity 
of any single worker for constant employment is so 
complex that it is not possible to measure the relative 
force of it. It is pertinent, however, to gather from 
the great abundance of published material on various 
phases of the subject some instances of these fluctua- 
tions and irregularities, and to indicate, wherever the 
data are sufficient, the extent to which the worker's 
economic security is weakened by these causes. 

Fluctuations: Cyclical. — Corresponding to the alter- 
nate expansion and contraction of industrial activity, 



140 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

as shown by the familiar cyclical barometrics of busi- 
ness, is an alternate rise and fall of the average per- 
centage of unemployment, as shown by statistics of 
unemployment. These alternations denote, of course, 
changes in the intensity of the demand for workers. 
Without entering into the causes of cyclical fluctua- 
tions in demand, it is important to note their extent 
as exprest in the form of lost working time and 
unemployment. 

The most comprehensive and consistent statistics cov- 
ering a series of years are afforded by data secured 
from trade unions and published by the New York 
State Department of Labor, and the Massachusetts 
Bureau of Statistics. Cyclical fluctuations in employ- 
ment offered in coal mining are indicated by the famil- 
iar statistics of days idle. Other data are suggested 
by statistics showing the number of employees in a city 
or a state from year to year, as given by the New 
York Department of Labor; the total amount paid in 
wages, as given by the Massachusetts Bureau of Sta- 
tistics; and the figures of applications for jobs as given 
by public employment oflices. 

These statistics indicate, for example, that 1904, 1908 
and 19 1 3 were periods of relatively great unemploy- 
ment, occurring every four or five years. "We know 
that 1892 was a year of great depression in industry," 
remarks the report of the New York Commission's 
Committee on Unemployment,^^ "altho we have no 

"Third Report of the New York Commission on Employer's Liability and 
Unemployment, 1911, p. 43. 



IN. AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 141 

statistics of unemployment for that year. Thus it 
appears we have two cycHcal movements. The amount 
of idleness rises and falls and reaches very high propor- 
tions approximately every 15 years, and within the 
greater waves there are smaller fluctuations with dull 
years recurring every four or five years. It is noted 
that all sources of information show the same move- 
ment." 

These cyclical fluctuations do not appear to be con- 
fined to any single group of industries; they appear 
in all. This fact is illustrated in the following table 
showing the monthly mean percentages of idleness in 
the state of New York by industries from 1908 to 
19 14, inclusive: 

IDLENESS IN LABOR UNIONS IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK, 
1908-1914, BY INDUSTRIES 

Industry 1914 1913 1912 1911 1910 1909 1908 

Building, stone, etc 39.8 25.2 21.2 20.7 24.1 26.7 42.3 

Transportation 13.5 9.4 7.5 19.9 14.0 23.8 31.0 

Clothing and textiles . . . . 38.9 40.9 28.8 22.8 34.1 18.8 34.3 

Metals, machinery, etc. .. 20.2 10.5 11.4 24.0 7.7 13.7 29.0 

Printing, binding, etc. . . 10.4 7.1 5.7 5.2 5.0 9.4 18.7 

Woodwork and furniture.. 32.4 21.7 17.8 19.4 10.5 13.3 33.2 

Food and liquors 12.5 10.3 9.9 8.5 12.8 9.6 11.0 

Tobacco 25.9 10.0 7.7 12.8 11.1 12.4 15.4 

Res., trade, etc 13.5 6.0 5.3 5.3 5.4 6.6 11.1 

Stationary engine tending. . 3.0 2.1 1.9 1.8 1.4 1.6 3.1 

Miscellaneous 24.4 9.5 7.1 13.1 14.5 14.4 22.0 

Fluctuations: Seasonal. — It is a familiar fact that 
unemployment appears to be greater at certain seasons 
of the year than at others. Distress among unem- 
ployed persons seems to be the most acute during the 
winter months, altho in the great majority of manu- 



142 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

facturing industries the maximum employment occurs 
in the winter. The apparent inconsistency is to be 
explained in part, perhaps, by the fact that shipping, 
agricultural and certain industries closely allied with 
agricultural industries, building and the like, have their 
periods of extreme activity in the summer months, and 
that, while basic manufacturing industries tend to 
absorb all of their ordinary available supply of labor in 
winter, a large number of workers in the other indus- 
tries are idle at the very period of the year when the 
cost of living is at the highest and when actual suffering 
is most likely to occur. Furthermore, the tendency on 
the part of workers idle in winter to flock to the larger 
cities concentrates unemployment in these localities at 
that time of the year. 

Just how many more workers are actually unemployed 
in one season of the year than at others can not be 
definitely estimated for the country as a whole. It can 
be determined for a locality, however, because the fluc- 
tuations in the demand for labor in local industries is 
a matter capable of more or less exact estimate. For 
monthly or seasonal fluctuations are according to indus- 
try rather than locality. 

So much has been published on the seasonal phase 
of the unemployment problem that it is impossible to 
present here a summary of all of the available data. 
A conception of its importance as a cause in loss of 
working time, unemployment and the economic inse- 
curity of workers in some of the larger industries will, 
it is believed, be afforded by typical illustrations : 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 143 

VARIATION IN EMPLOYMENT IN CERTAIN PRINCIPAL 

INDUSTRIES, 1909 

(Compiled from U. S. Census, 1910, Vol. viii) 

Wage-earners employed Per cent. 

^ ^ ^ minimum is 

Industry Maximum Minimum of minimum 

month month month 

Agricultural implements . . Dec. Aug. 81.0 

Boots and shoes Dec. May 91.8 

Canning and preserving . . Sep. Jan. 12.9 

Clothing, men's Dec. Jan. 91.8 

Clothing, women's . . . . Oct. July 80.6 

Furniture Nov. Jan. 88.2 

Cotton goods Dec. July 49.3 

Glass Dec. Jan, 97.6 

Iron and steel Dec. Mar. 75.8 

Leather Dec. May 91.0 

Printing Dec. July 93.3 

Hosiery and knit goods . . Nov. Jan. 91.7 

Silk Mar. July 95.8 

Sugar refining July Jan. 79.7 

Tobacco Dec. Jan. 91.6 

Woolen and worsted . . . . Nov. Jan. 91.0 

Fertilizers Mar. July 48.7 

The 1 9 10 Census exhibits wide differences for the 
principal manufacturing industries in the number of 
wage-earners employed in the different months of the 
year. In 1909 the greatest steadiness of employment 
was in the manufacture of cotton goods. Other large 
industries in which the month of least activity was 
more than 90 per cent, were boots and shoes, men's 
clothing, leather and leather goods, printing, hosiery 
and knit goods, silk, tobacco and woolen and worsted. 
The women's clothing, furniture, iron and steel and 
sugar refining industries show a relatively large degree 
of fluctuation in the number of employees. Of the 
larger industries, the greatest fluctuations are seen in 
glass and fertilizer manufacturing. The canning and 



144 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

preserving industry is conspicuously a seasonal one, and, 
as the Census points out, if it were not for the fact 
that the canning and curing of fish and the canning 
of oysters are carried on to some extent in the winter 
months, the variation in the canning industry would 
appear to be even greater. 

A better idea of the effect of seasonal fluctuations is 
gained from the replies received from 191 trade unions 
in the state of New York by the New York Commis- 
sion on Employer's Liability and Unemployment. ^^ 
According to these replies, the following trades had 
slack seasons of three months: Railroad and railway 
employees, plumbers and steam and gas-fitters, clothing 
and textile workers, carpenters and joiners, and miscel- 
laneous building employees. Painters, decorators and 
paperhangers, cement workers, masons and bricklayers, 
woodworkers, tobacco workers, electrical workers, team- 
sters and drivers, molders and millwrights had slack 
seasons of from four to five months. The slack sea- 
son for longshoremen and brewery employees was six 
months. Stone workers had no work at all for three 
months in the year and pavers and rammermen no work 
for six months. The same report stated that, in the 
building and stoneworking trades, which exhibit in a 
very marked manner the influence of weather condi- 
tions, fully one-third of the workers are thrown out 
of employment during slack seasons, the bricklayers 
and plasterers losing the most time. Fluctuation in the 
employment of transport workers is due to the closing 

«> Third Report, 1911, p. 162. 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 145 

of the navigation season, as was brought out in the 
hearings of the Commission on Industrial Relations on 
the New York Dock Workers. 

The glass and clay products industries exhibit dis- 
tinctly seasonal fluctuations, the slack season coming 
during the summer. In New Jersey, for example, 
during 19 12 the number of employees in 21 window 
glass and glass-bottle factories varied from between 
6,000 and over 7,000 from October to June, reaching 
1,874 in August.^^ In brick and terra-cotta, another 
important New Jersey industry, the maximum number 
of employees was about 9,000 from April to October, 
reaching a minimum in January and February of about 
6,700.^^ The Massachusetts statistics for 191 3 show 
that in the boot and shoe factories in that state the 
total number of employees was between 82,000 and 
85,000 from November to March, dropping to 77,000 
approximately in June and showing a somewhat dull 
season from April through October. In cotton goods 
the total number of employees was between 116,000 and 
118,000 from October through April, the period from 
May to September constituting a dull period, the mini- 
mum being 109,000 in August.^^ 

The character of the seasonal demand for the prod- 
uct as a cause of fluctuations in employment is illus- 
trated by such industries as clothing (some branches 
of the industry more than others), confectionery, mil- 

** Thirty-sixth Annual Report of New Jersey Bureau of Statistics of Labor 
and Industries, p. 56, 

"Ibid., p. 48. 

»8 Twenty-eighth Annual Report of Bureau of Statistics on Statistics of 
Manufacture, 1914. 



146 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

linery, paper boxes and the like. In the manufacture 
of paper boxes, for example, there is a busy season 
ranging from a few weeks to two or three months 
before Christmas and a shorter rush period before 
Easter. After the Christmas rush and through the 
summer come the dull times. This condition is spe- 
cially pronounced in the manufacture of novelty or 
fancy boxes and hardly noticeable in the manufacture 
of staple boxes, such as shoe or cigaret boxes.^* 

The garment industries in New York are a familiar 
instance of seasonal fluctuation in employment. 'There 
are about six months of activity," says a recent report 
on the dress and waist industry ,^^ "four in the spring and 
two in the fall, half of them carried on under extreme, 
almost feverish, pressure, followed by an equal period 
of subnormal activity with almost complete stagnation 
for one month in the year." The two ''high peaks" 
are found in March and October, while the lowest point 
is in July. It is important to note that the fluctua- 
tion in wages is greater than the fluctuation in number 
of employees. For example, in March, it was found that 
there were 20 per cent, more people employed than 
the average throughout the year, but wages in the same 
month rose to 37 per cent, above the average — a fact 
which is due to the longer working hours and increased 
wages during the rush season. Similarly, in the slack 
season employment drops to 60 per cent, of the aver- 
age, while wages go down as low at 53 per cent. Sea- 

24 Bureau of Labor, Woman and Child Wage-Earners, Vol. xvlii, pp. 
244-245. 

2s Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bulletin, 146. 



1 



IN 'AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 147 

sonal fluctuation in the clothing industry has been 
observed everywhere where an investigation has been 
made. Rush seasons and overtime work in the cloth- 
ing factories were noted by the Kentucky Commission 
to Investigate Conditions of Working Women,^'^ as 
many as 50 per cent, of the workers being laid off during 
slack seasons lasting from three to six months, while 
the remainder work only ''short days" or "short weeks" 
or both — a condition found to exist in New York City 
as well as in other localities. Testimony before the 
Commission on Industrial Relations showed that in 
Philadelphia the work seasons in the women's gar- 
ment industry totaled seven or eight months, from 
August to November and from February to April. 
Similar testimony corroborated the conditions described 
above for New York City. The Federal Bureau of 
Labor Statistics investigation of women workers in 
Indiana garment factories, undertaken in cooperation 
with the Commission on Industrial Relations and the 
Indiana Commission on Working Women, showed that 
nearly 60 per cent, of the factories reported alternate 
periods of rush and slack seasons. In these factories 
nearly 50 per cent, of the women garment workers 
were employed. It was found that 94 per cent, of the 
6y establishments investigated reported a normal sea- 
son which averaged 37 weeks in length and affected 
98.7 per cent, of the women, and that 56.6 per cent, of 
the establishments reported a dull season averaging 13^ 
weeks in duration, affecting 43.8 per cent, of the 

2» Report, 1911, p. 16. 



148 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

women.^^ Considerable variation was shown according 
to the branch of the clothing industry, thus: 

NORMAL, DULL AND BUSY SEASONS AS REPORTED FOR 67 

GARMENT FACTORIES IN INDIANA, GROUPED 

ACCORDING TO GARMENTS MADE 

Per cent, of establishments reporting 



Garments Manufactured 



Working-men's clothes (including 
overalls, coats and work shirts) o.. 

Cotton gloves 55.6 

Men's custom-made suits and over- 
coats 

Men's fine shirts and furnishings . . 

Women's ready-made clothing . . . . 

Women's custom-made clothing 

Total 40.3 31.3 3.0 19.4 6.0 

a One establishment also makes women's ready-made clothing. 

In confectionery manufacture two slack seasons are 
shown — one in July and another at the end of Decem- 
ber and in January — in which large numbers of em- 
ployees are laid oflf,^* this number reaching 25 per cent, 
after the Christmas season in New York candy 
factories. ^^ 

The retail season in the millinery business lasts from 
February until after Easter and from August until 
November, according to the New York Factory Inves- 
ts Bureau of Labor Statistics Bulletin No. 160, pp. 62-64. 
'9 Massachusetts Minimum Wage Commission, Wages of Women in Candy 
Factories, 1914, pp. 36-37; Washington State Industrial Welfare Commission, 
1914, p. 27. 

80 H. B. Woolston, Survey, February 6, 1915. 



/ 




>» 


73 






j3 


2 


C 




a 


3 
73 


i 


« M 


3 


o 


•o 


-d 


"n to 


"d 


tS 


c 


a 


"XJ " 


•o 




«g 






<4 c 


"rt >, 


rt 1 


« g 


"rt >. 


g?S 


11 


|s 




e 3 




^ 


o^^ 


^ 


^ 




36.4 


50.0 




13.6 


.... 


55.6 


22.2 


5.6 


16.6 


.... 




16.7 




50.0 


ZZ.Z 


55^6 


22.2 


.... 


22.2 





22.2 


2>Z.Z 


11.1 


22.2 


11.1 


66.7 


.... 


.... 


.... 


33.3 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 149 

tigating Commission's data, thus allowing but six 
months' employment for large numbers of milliners 
divided among two seasons.^^ 

In mercantile establishments — especially in depart- 
ment stores and five- and ten-cent stores — the seasonal 
fluctuation in employment is extremely great. The 
New York Factory Investigating Commission's returns 
from 18 large mercantile establishments in New York 
City indicated that, during the busy season before 
Christmas, 56,000 were employed and that during the 
summer months the number fell to 35,000, being a dis- 
placement of nearly 50 per cent, on the basis of the 
average number employed.^^ The testimony on depart- 
ment stores in New York City before the Commission 
on Industrial Relations furnished a number of instances 
of this seasonal irregularity of employment. Similar 
conditions have been described in several other reports. 
In cities in the State of Washington, "seasonal open- 
ings" and the Christmas season made necessary the 
employment of extra forces for a period ranging from 
three to six weeks, while in the slack winter season 
employees were given unpaid "vacations" two weeks to a 
month in length.^^ The Bureau of Labor Statistics 
investigation in Indiana cities, conducted in cooperation 
with the Commission on Industrial Relations and the 
Indiana Commission on Working Women, found "that 
124, or 88.6 per cent., of the establishments reported 
a dull season averaging 15 1-6 weeks and affecting 86.7 

81, S2H. B. Woolston, Survey, February 6, 1915. 

^Washington State Industrial Welfare Commission, 1914, p. 78. 



I50 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

per cent, of the prevailing number of women em- 
ployed." '* 

A marked variation in the duration of the dull season 
and in the number of women affected, according to 
locality, appeared thus: 

DULL SEASONS IN SELLING DEPARTMENTS OF DEPARTMENT AND 
OTHER RETAIL STORES IN TEN INDIANA CITIES 

Establishments Average 
reporting dull Women affected duration 
season in weeks 
A A 

Cities Num- Per Num- Per 

ber cent. ber cent.a 

Indianapolis 26 92.9 1,715 94.2 15 2-3 

Terre Haute 11 84.6 545 81.1 14 3-5 

Evansville 17 77.3 343 76.2 13 

Fort Wayne 14 100.0 369 97.9 16 2-5 

South Bend 14 93.3 342 85.1 15 3-4 

Muncie 11 84.6 239 90.5 13 1-3 

Hammond 3 75.0 53 23.0 12 1-6 

La Fayette 8 100.0 230 95.8 20 

Richmond 13 92.9 154 98.1 15 1-2 

New Albany 7 77.8 97 95.1 13 1-5 

Total I24 88^6 4"^ 867 15 1-6 

a Based on prevailing number employed. 

Probably no more striking example of extremely sea- 
sonal industries exists than in California. While the 
average number of employees engaged in canning, for 
instance, was 7,757 in 1909, the maximum was 160,- 
607 in August and the minimum 2,781 in February. In 
the lumber industry, employment in January was less 
than half of what it was in July. Manufacturing is 
intricately connected wath agriculture, since vegetable 
and fruit growing, and canning and the hop industry 
are so predominant. The demand for labor is seasonal 
in the extreme, and a permanent settled working popu- 

** Bureau of Labor Statistics Bulletin, 160, p. 15. 



I 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 151 

lation, with inducements and opportunities for organ- 
ization being lacking, there has grown up a general 
indifference on the part of employers and careless treat- 
ment of employees. 

The hearings of the Commission on Industrial Rela- 
tions at San Francisco emphasized the seasonal char- 
acter of employment. The cutting season for aspara- 
gus begins in March and is followed by the canning 
season, beginning in April and continuing to July. The 
strawberry season begins in May and lasts sometimes 
until November. The season for peas is less than one 
month, for peaches from July 15th to October ist, and 
for other deciduous fruits about three weeks, altho 
in some districts by rotating the crops the season for 
deciduous crops, other than peaches, is extended to as 
long as six weeks. The largest canning plants in San 
Francisco do not operate any longer than from April 
1st to December ist, altho on about the latter dates the 
season for citrus and olives begins and some canning 
employees can get work in these industries. The heavy 
rush season in fruits and vegetables comes in July, 
August and September, while the canning plants and 
nearly all employment stops in December, January, 
February and March. In the hop industry only a 
few are employed in the winter, with a slight increase 
from February until the middle of August, when har- 
vest time starts and a rush season, that lasts for a 
month or six weeks. The Horst Company, which oper- 
ates a number of ranches in California and does 20 per 
cent, of the hop-growing in that state, employs only 



152 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

about 150 people in the winter, in the spring probably 
about 300 or 400, and in harvest time about 1,500, the 
harvest force being unusually small because this company 
has perfected a hop-picking machine. Wages paid by 
the Horst Company are fairly illustrative, not only of 
the hop industry, but also of other similar industries, 
since the labor supply is so mobile and competition 
among industries prevails in rush seasons. 

Irregular Employment. — It is difficult, in the absence 
of sufficiently exact data, to determine how much unem- 
ployment and loss of time generally are due to seasonal 
fluctuations in the activity of an industry within any 
normal year and how much to irregularities resulting 
from the conduct of industry. In the foregoing some 
of the clearest cases of seasonal fluctuations have been 
mentioned, yet in practically all industries, some more 
than others, employment is irregular, not only because 
of the seasonal variations which can be foreseen, but 
because of such methods and conditions as the necessity 
of cutting down the cost of production (including labor 
cost) in order to maintain even fair profits, the prac- 
tise of piling up orders, contract work, irregular work, 
such as dock work and the like. 

The steel industry furnishes an excellent example 
of the industrial practise that results in irregularity of 
employment which can not be foreseen by the worker 
and which is so peculiarly a menace to his economic 
security and peace of mind. The Federal investiga- 
tion of 1910 into conditions of employment in iron and 
steel brought out very clearly the policy of the indus- 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 153 

try to ''operate at its fullest capacity during active 
demand, then, during a decline in the market, to shut 
down completely and await an accumulation of orders or 
the development of better prices."^^ Taking the five 
principal departments in a large number of plants, the 
report presents the following significant statistics: 

Number of Weeks Employees in each period 

IN Operation ^ a ^ 

Number Per cent. 

Under 28 weeks 4,906 5.4 

28 to 32 weeks 2,287 2.5 

32 to 36 weeks . . 4,168 4.5 

36 to 40 weeks 8,559 9.4 

40 to 44 weeks 13,648 15.3 

44 to 48 weeks 23,015 25.4 

48 to 52 weeks 25,262 27.7 

52 weeks 8,912 9.8 

Totals 90,757 100.0 

Differences in regularity of operation among estab- 
lishments are seen in practically all industries. For 
instance, in a single locality, Paterson, New Jersey, in 
a normal year, only 8i per cent, of the silk mills oper- 
ated 300 days, as shown by the following tabulation 
compiled from the Federal Woman and Child Wage- 
Earners' report: 

NUMBER OF SILK MILLS IN OPERATION A SPECIFIED NUMBER OF 
DAYS DURING A NORMAL YEAR IN PATERSON, 
NEW JERSEY 
Number of Establishments Employees 
Days in Operation Number Per cent. Number Per cent. 
A A 

300 days and over .. 112 81.2 12,417 79.9 

275 days to 299 days 18 13.0 2,301 14.8 

250 days to 274 days 4 2.9 629 4.1 
225 days to 249 days 

Under 225 days . . 4 2.9 193 1.2 

"Report on the Conditions of Employment in the Iron and Steel Industry, 
Vol. iii, p. 206. 



154 



CONDITIONS OF LABOR 



Or, in a large plant, as shown in the following sta- 
tistics giving the number of employees on the pay-roll 
of a Chicago meat-packing company at the end of each 
four-week period throughout a year :^^ 

FLUCTUATIONS IN EMPLOYMENT, COMPANY 2 

D^TE Number of 

Employees 

June 4 5,641 

July 2 5,847 

July 30 6,272 

August 27 6,520 

September 24 .. .. 6,754 

October 22 7,046 



Date 


Number of 
Employees 


November 20 . . . 


. 6,523 


December 18 .. . 


. 7,041 


January 15, 1910 


. 6,799 


February 12 . . . 


. 6,317 


March 12 


. 6,119 


April 9 


. 5,862 


May 7 


. 5,702 



Twenty-five per cent, of the workers in this estab- 
lishment alone were unemployed during the year, and 
in some departments, as Mr. Kennedy remarked, approxi- 
mately one-third of the time of the worker was lost 
through unemployment. The differences in the steadi- 
ness of employment in different occupations and depart- 
ments of plants in various industries, such as in Massa- 
chusetts brush and candy factories and iron and steel 
manufacturing, have already been alluded to. In many 
industries the manufacturing end has been made subject 
to the selling end. The activity of the sales staff is 
really the barometer of the activity of the plant. The 
result is that instead of attempting to secure a steady 
flow of orders — and the kind of orders that will make 
possible a steady output — emphasis has been laid on the 
developing of a sales department or staff that will "get 
orders" regardless of the effects of this ir regular ization 



*« John C. Kennedy: Wages and Family Budgets in the Chicago Stockyards 
District. 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 155 

of industry on the efficiency of the manufacturing force 
or the welfare of the workers. Closely allied with this 
practise — and in many instances a direct result of it — is 
carrying on the pay-rolls a larger number of workers 
than can be afforded steady work all the time. In 
some cases, as is well known, the manufacturer prefers 
to keep workers on, even tho they can not earn 
full-time wages, rather than discharge them. This is 
done not only in periods of inactivity, but all the time, 
from the best-intentioned motives, altho the economic 
soundness of the practise is open to serious question. 
In other cases the manufacturer deliberately adopts this 
plan for the purpose of having on hand a reserve of 
labor on which he can draw at any time that the market 
for his production may warrant it. 

How far differences in steadiness of employment are 
due to the practise of individual establishments and 
how far to modern industrial organization and methods 
is difficult of determination. The two are bound 
together more because of a single condition, perhaps, 
than for any other reason or reasons, which may be 
described as a necessity — as distinguished from the mere 
desire or aim — of cutting down the cost of production 
in manufacturing. Overcapitalization of certain indus- 
tries, it has been claimed, renders necessary the 
seizing of every opportunity to cut down operating 
cost in order to pay dividends, even tho the industry be 
practically controlled by a single corporation or group 
of employers. That competitive conditions bring about 
the same necessity is a familiar fact. It was brought 



156 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

out in testimony at the hearings of the Commission on 
Industrial Relations at Butte, for instance, that some 
mines operate steadily all summer and others work only 
two or three weeks. The Bear Creek miner, it was 
stated, worked steadily during the summer but for only 
two or three days a week. The reason assigned for 
curtailments was "danger of overproduction" because 
the Montana miners were in close competition with the 
mines in surrounding States.^^ In fact, the generaliza- 
tion is probably warranted that any condition in indus- 
trial organization or methods necessitating the cutting 
down of labor cost is apt to result in irregularity of 
employment. "It is obvious," says Mr. Beveridge, "that 
so long as the industrial world is split up into separate 
groups of employers — each group with a life of its own 
and growing or decaying in ceaseless attrition upon its 
neighbors — there must be insecurity of employment. 
. . . Unemployment, in other words, is to some 
extent at least, part of the price of industrial compe- 
tition — ^part of the waste without which there could be 
no competition at all."^^ 

Other conditions in industrial organization and prac- 
tise, which may or may not be related to the condi- 
tions mentioned above, result in irregularity of employ- 
ment. The contract system, such as prevails in build- 
ing, is undoubtedly a prolific cause of lost working time 
and lack of "jobs." Not even the highly developed 
organization of labor and its limitation of the supply of 

s' Butte Hearings. 

•8 Unemployment, A Problem of Industry, p. 235. 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 157 

skilled labor in any given trade are sufficient to prevent 
irregularity of employment even during "seasons" of 
work, altho the success of a union in raising the 
rate of wages may discount the loss of wages through 
unemployment and provide an adequate annual family 
income. This system of a large number of labor mar- 
kets — a number as great as the total number of 
employees — is not only nation-wide, but it is to be found 
in almost every industry and every locality. The well- 
known conditions among the dock workers in London 
and Liverpool find a counterpart, for example, among 
the dock workers of New York City, except for the 
fact that conditions are much worse in the American 
port. 

The situation was brought out in a graphic manner 
by testimony before the Commission on Industrial 
Relations at its hearings on the dock workers of New 
York City. From one-third to ten times as many work- 
ers were seeking employment as were actually employed 
or needed, the hiring being done by stevedores, who, 
it was charged, are unfair in distributing the available 
employment. Altho the hours of hiring were seven, one 
and seven o'clock, men were "hired and fired" at all 
hours. There is not only no certainty as to the time of 
employment and irregularity in the seasonal demand 
for labor, but there is no certainty for the great major- 
ity of men as to the length of time a single job will 
last. In order to earn $9 or $10 a week, representing 
three or four days labor, the men are compelled to 
spend practically all of their time, including Sundays, 



158 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

at the piers. The rush for ''preference checks" at the 
Hoboken docks, for instance, is so great at times the 
men are beaten back with water hose and clubs. The 
desire to lower the cost of handling freight, and uncer- 
tainty as to the way the tonnage happens to come in 
(a condition worse in New York than in Liverpool, 
because the tides in Liverpool are a regularizing factor), 
and the tendency on the part of unemployed workers 
from other industries to concentrate where the chance 
of employment is greatest, are factors that are funda- 
mental. 

The familiar spectacle of crowds of men at the gates 
of steel mills every morning is but another illustration 
of the system of haphazard employment of unskilled 
workers that is seen in its extreme form in the employ- 
ment of dock workers. The gangs of laborers that 
are used in iron and steel plants, as well as in other 
large establishments where unskilled workers are em- 
ployed to a considerable extent, are not only employed 
temporarily for a few hours, a few days, or a few 
weeks, but are rarely composed of the same individuals 
for more than one "job." The use of this system — or 
lack of system — in employment was clearly brought out 
by witnesses before the Commission on Industrial Rela- 
tions in its hearings on labor conditions in the Chicago 
stockyards. 

It was shown that a large proportion of stockyards 
employees were unskilled and were employed from day 
to day. A group "would assemble every morning and 
the employment agent would pick out the number that 



1 



IN 'AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 159 

they (the employers) thought they needed for that 
day," stated one witness who had made a careful inves- 
tigation of labor conditions in the industry. "They do 
not hire these unskilled laborers by contract, for a week, 
or a month, or a year, or anything of that sort. A man 
never knows whether he is hired for an hour or for a 
week."^^ One of the largest employers in the stock- 
yards admitted that probably 25 per cent, of the em- 
ployees are subject to irregular employment on account 
of irregular receipts of live-stock at the yards.*^ Accord- 
ing to the statement of the general superintendent of 
the packing plants of Armour & Company, the actual 
method of hiring is as follows: There is an employ- 
ment bureau at each plant, under supervision of the 
superintendent or assistant superintendent. The man 
in charge receives a request each morning, or preferably 
the night before, showing the number and kind of men 
needed by the foremen in the various departments. The 
employing is concluded about 8 o'clock in the morning 
and any who are waiting are notified that they are not 
needed. The number who appear in the morning at 
each plant is sometimes as great as two or three hun- 
dred. A man is given a new check number each time 
he is hired, no matter whether he is an old employee 
or not, but the attempt is now being made to give old 
employees the preference. Altho some care is used in 
the selection of men for certain kinds of work, the men 

" John C. Kennedy. Transcript of the Public Hearings of the U. S. Commis- 
sion on Industrial Relations on Life and Labor Conditions in the Stockyards, 
Chicago, April 15-16, 1915. 

♦'J, Ogden Arn?our, ibid. 



i6o CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

are selected from the waiting groups by "tapping them 
on the shoulder." It was stated that the principal diffi- 
culty in the way of employing the same individuals from 
day to day was that those who were regularly employed 
soon were able to do more skilled work.^^ A union 
official charged that even those engaged in regular occu- 
pations and earning as much as $1.85 a day were 
discharged upon the excuse that work was slack, and 
that others would be hired the next day to do their 
work at reduced wages.^^ 

In a different category, perhaps, from the loss of 
working time and unemployment due to conditions 
referred to above, are conditions that result in lost 
time by those who are regularly employed. These con- 
ditions are familiar to every factory worker. Piece- 
workers in the New York dress and waist industry, for 
instance, were found to lose working time on account 
of certain prevailing practises in shop management, such 
as waiting for work, waiting for parts, waiting for 
repairs on machines, or cleaning or repairing machines 
by the workers themselves, and time taken to receive 
instructions from the foremen or instructors as to the 
way the work should be done. The workers do not 
get paid for time spent in these ways, and their amount 
of possible working time is reduced. In addition to 
these practises, are loss of time due to the necessity 
for attending to personal needs and in repairing defects 
in work returned by examiners. Loss of working time, 

«John E. O'Hern, ibid. 

*2 Dennis Lane, General Organizer for Amalgamated Meat Cutters and 
Butcher Workers of North America, ibid. 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES i6i 

due to conditions such as the above in the New York 
dress and waist industry, was found to amount in some 
instances of workers who were carefully observed to 
as much as 30 per cent of the total possible time, while 
the average for all of the workers for whom data were 
obtained was approximately 5 per cent., the lost time 
varying with the occupation as well as with the 
individual. 

The problem of unemployment, or irregularity of 
employment or unemployment, is not concerned in these 
conditions, of course; the conditions, however, have the 
same effect, in the case of piece-workers, as lost earn- 
ings/^ The practise of 'leveling wages," so-called, of 
piece-workers is also a familiar one and less defensible. 
To borrow a graphic illustration from a recent article :** 
"Molly Brown is engaged on piece-work and has been 
in the habit of making eight dollars a week. If dur- 
ing the first four days of the week she is given what are 
known as 'fat jobs' and has already earned her eight 
dollars by Thursday night, the forewoman sees to it 
that she gets little or no work on Friday or Saturday. 
Why? Because if Molly should earn nine dollars or 
perhaps ten dollars at piece rate this week, the fore- 
woman is afraid that she will begin to rate herself as 
a nine-dollar or ten-dollar girl and that would be 
troublesome. The net result from an economic stand- 
point is two days of unemployment." 

*3 Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bulletin, 146, Wages and Employment in the 
Dress and Waist Industry, pp. 284-85. 

** Casual and Chronic Unemployment, by M. L. Cooke, Director, Department 
of Public Works, Philadelphia, Annals of the American Academy of Science and 
Political Science lix; p. 195; May, 1915. 



i62 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

While the employer's motive in such an instance may 
be to prevent the setting of a precedent in earnings 
that might form a standard undesirably high from his 
point of view, the practise results not only in restrict- 
ing wages to a low level by means of removing the 
opportunity to earn higher wages, but in necessitating 
the presence of another worker to do the work that 
might be done by one. The actual situation in a number 
of cotton-mill families was clearly shown in the budget- 
ary studies made in the course of the Woman and 
Child Labor Investigation a few years ago. Altho 
the mills in which the wage-earners of these families 
were employed were operated steadily throughout the 
year, the weekly family income in all instances rose and 
fell in wide variations throughout the year. In one 
week a family would have a competence; for the next 
two weeks its income would be below what was found 
to be sufficient for a fair standard of living. Part of 
this fluctuation in income was due to disabilities and 
voluntary idleness, but the workers complained that 
the management of the mills kept more workers on 
the pay-rolls than was necessary. 

At the basis of the conditions that result in irregu- 
larity of employment (as distinguished from the more 
or less regular cyclical and seasonal fluctuations) lies a 
fact whose significance can not be overlooked in a con- 
sideration of the causes of the wage-earner's loss in 
working time. This fact is the attitude of the modern 
employer toward the workers. There are strong rea- 
sons in the evolution of industry for him to have gradu- 



IN 'AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 163 

ally adopted the point of view from which he looks upon 
the workers as the supply of labor in a strictly imper- 
sonal sense, to regard it not even quantitatively, but as 
a force which means so much productive power in the 
same sense as the steam or electricity that he requires 
to give motive power to his machines. This force 
may be a small number of regular efficient workers 
or a large number of changing, irregular workers whose 
efficiency reaches a maximum for only a given period. 
The development of mechanical processes, however, 
has tended to make it possible for a larger proportion 
of unskilled and semi-skilled workers to constitute the 
working force than ever before, and the incentive which 
once existed in the handcraft period of industry to 
retain individual workmen has nearly passed away. The 
impersonal employer — the corporation — has removed 
the opportunity for intimate relationship between man 
and master. 

The fierce competition of manufacturers in the 
national markets of to-day has forced employers to 
abandon many practises that once were of manifold 
benefits to their employees, among them being the em- 
ployment in any given plant of a group of workers 
who consisted pretty much of the same individuals 
and of the same number of individuals from month to 
month and from year to year. The "reserve of labor" 
which is regarded as necessary in probably the great 
majority of modern industrial plants is evidence enough 
of the altered viewpoint of the employer. The labor 
reserve of almost any locality in the United States — 



i64 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

in fact, the presence of a great labor reserve in the 
nation as a whole — makes it possible for industries 
paying low wages or offering extremely irregular em- 
ployment at high wages, to be called into existence 
by a demand for products that under different condi- 
tions would be insufficient to admit of the financial suc- 
cess of their undertaking and operation. 

The existence of such conditions as have been referred 
to in the foregoing pages postulates an attitude that 
places human labor more and more in the category of 
mechanical power. Without discussing here the degree 
in which the employer is to blame, or in which he is 
himself a victim of an industrial system, the fact of 
such an attitude is fundamental to the entire problem of 
those modern conditions under which they who have 
human labor, physical rather than mental, as their sole 
stock in trade, must work and live and perform their 
functions as integers of society. Certainly it has a very 
definite bearing upon regularity of- employment as one 
of these conditions. 

Conditions Determining the Worker's Ability to 
Grasp or Retain the Opportunity to Be Employed 
Which Industry Offers. — In the statement by the Federal 
Bureau of Labor *^ of the causes of loss of working time 
by over 12,000 of wage-earners' families, it was seen that 
the closing of plants, slack work, inability to get work 
and accidents were stated to be the causes of idleness 
in about 52 per cent, of cases of heads of families, 
while sickness of worker was the cause in about 23 per 

«See p. 113. 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 165 

cent, of cases of heads of families. Furthermore, sick- 
ness, together with closing of plants, slack work or 
inability to get work, was the cause in over 6 per cent, 
more. Voluntary vacation was the cause in about 6y2 
per cent, of cases, while strikes were responsible for 
loss of time in but 2 per cent, of cases. The importance 
of ill health as a cause of loss in working time can not 
be overlooked — as it frequently has been — in a consid- 
eration of the problem of unemployment. The heads 
of families, approximately 3,000, who were idle during 
the year on account of ill health lost on an average 
very closely to four weeks' time. 

These statistics, however, are based chiefly on the 
experience of workers who are capable of fairly regu- 
lar employment. The causes of idleness, as stated by 
12,000 selected heads of wage-earners' families, do not 
include a number of other causes that result in the 
inability of the worker to grasp or retain the opportu- 
nity for employment which industry actually offers. 
Among these have been mentioned old age, deficien- 
cies in the industrial training of the worker, lack 
of facilities to bring the worker and the job to- 
gether, and conditions resulting in the immobility of 
the labor supply and causes affecting industrial workers, 
such as dishonesty, laziness, intemperance, irregularity, 
"shiftlessness" and stupidity, which are commonly 
included under the general term "deficiencies of char- 
acter." "Between individual workmen even of the 
same type," as Mr. Beveridge remarks, "there exist dif- 
ferences of every kind and degree. In the men of each 



i66 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

trade is to be found every gradation of industrial value. 
Some differences affect the most obvious technical quali- 
ties ; one man is stronger or speedier, or more intel- 
lectual, or more skilled than another. Others affect the 
less obvious qualities which make for continuance 
in employment — assiduity, regularity, punctuality, power 
of obedience and cooperation. Others affect rather 
the power to pass from one type of work to another, 
i.e., adaptability. There can be no doubt of the exist- 
ence of these differences, or as to their effect in deter- 
mining the incidence of unemployment.^^ Workers are 
unequal in efticiency, and *'to them competition deals 
out stern justice" — to borrow the language of Mr. 
Charles Booth — "whatever the cause of their ineffi- 
ciency may be."^^ 

The potency of any or all of the factors named above 
— except, perhaps, sickness, accidents, and old age in a 
limited way — as causes of idleness can not as yet be 
statistically computed. That they are potent is unques- 
tioned. The fact is that cyclical and seasonal fluctua- 
tions and irregularities in the demand for labor con- 
tinually cause some workers to be laid off and that some 
workers are kept on more or less regularly. Whether 
or not a worker is to be among those dropt or among 
those to be retained is determined largely by the employ- 
er's opinion of his efficiency. Even if he is efficient, 
sickness or old age will overtake him, and he may lose in 
the one case, and certainly in the other, his economic 

"Unemployment; A Problem of Industry, p. 138. 
*' Life and Labour of the People. 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES i6y 

status. The economic security of an individual worker 
is determined by the factors which make or mar his 
ability to grasp or retain the opportunity to work that 
industry offers, just as it is determined by the factors 
which govern the available employment, altho the rela- 
tive effects of these causes, as exprest in working time 
lost, can only be stated in a general way. 

The social aspect of individual deficiencies, however, 
suggests an important consideration with regard to the 
conditions that cause them. Individual differences may 
be — and often are — caused by industrial and social con- 
ditions. How far the worker's inability to retain em- 
ployment, even when it can be retained, such as dis- 
honesty, laziness, stupidity and the like, are the outcome 
of his social inheritance and environment, is of course 
a matter of speculation as yet. But there is a growing 
belief that intemperance on the part of the worker is 
the fault, at least partly the fault, of the community 
and sometimes of the industry. Sickness, it has been 
found, is due not merely to the individual's carelessness 
as to his health and ignorance of how to preserve it, 
but to conditions under which he must work, as well 
as conditions under which he must live, which he could, 
and would, improve if he had sufficient and regular 
enough wages. 

Old age is usually recognized as a constant factor; 
but the question may well be asked if the demand 
for young men in certain industries and occupations 
and the strain of work and insufficiency of living in 
making men "old before their time," are not conditions 



i68 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

that cause an unnaturally high proportion of unemployed 
or casual workers among those who ought to be able 
to retain what opportunity there exists to earn a fair 
living. Too much charity tends to destroy the worker's 
incentive to be employed and to weaken his self-reliance. 
Certainly the absence of adequately developed vocational 
training which permits so many young workers to enter 
*'blind alleys" is a condition which is well recognized 
as a shortcoming of social responsibility. There can 
be little doubt that conditions rendering the labor supply 
too immovable to respond fully to the evolutionary 
changes and to fluctuations and irregularities in the 
demand for labor, are not deficiencies in the character 
or ability of the worker; and the need for an efficient 
system of labor exchanges for the purpose of equaliz- 
ing, as far as possible, the demand and the available 
efficient supply, is already felt to be an obligation rest- 
ing upon society. Furthermore, the loss of working 
time itself, interpreted in terms of reduced wages, and 
the irregularity of employment and all economic insecur- 
ity, are not the least among the causes of the worker's 
physical and mental ability to obtain employment. All 
of the direct effects of unemployment are in themselves 
causes of unemployment, and these form a vicious 
circle into which a large proportion of workers are 
constantly being entangled and from which they are 
cast aside into that "scrap heap" which, in the parlance 
of discussions of the problem, contains the "unemploy- 
ables." 

There is no longer any doubt that certain specific 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 169 

conditions in the industry which affect the worker's 
ability to retain his employment are already recognized 
as coming within this social conception of the responsi- 
bility for them. These specific conditions are occupa- 
tional diseases and accidents. As yet the question of 
whether occupational diseases can be distinguished, so 
far as causes and the responsibility for them are con- 
cerned, from the general problem of the wage-earner's 
health, is not settled. The vmdoubted tendency in other 
countries is to recognize it as a problem of labor that 
must be met by the employer and the public as well 
as by the employee. 

Effects of Unemployment 

Loss of w^orking time, irregularity of employment and 
the entire series of conditions which have been reviewed 
in the foregoing pages as constituting what is commonly 
called the problem of unemployment, have for their 
general result the economic insecurity of the worker. 
Because of different conditions in the various trades, 
occupations, industries and localities, this economic inse- 
curity is more intense among some workers than among 
others. A large class of workers truthfully may be 
said to possess no security at all. Their means of 
livelihood in the present is irregular in the extreme, 
even casual; their future livelihood is not simply uncer- 
tain, it is almost hopeless. 

Such a condition of insecurity can not exist, of course, 
without causing some very unwholesome results from 
the standpoint not only of the worker, but also of the 



170 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

employer and of society. What have been alluded to as 
causes of unemployment and loss in working time have 
already been pointed out as in themselves effects. In 
other words, in the natural interdependence of all eco- 
nomic factors, the greater the economic insecurity of 
the worker, the more active will be rendered the causes 
of that insecurity. This is the inevitable prospect that 
a view of the entire problem presents. At the same 
time, without going into a detailed description, atten- 
tion may be called to certain specific results which 
will suggest more correctly the significance of the prob- 
lem in the life of the wage-worker. 

First, is the actual loss of earnings or decreased 
wages. It is not necessary to point out that so far 
as inadequate family income is caused by the fail- 
ure of the breadwinner to earn his full wages, the neces- 
sity of supplementing family income from the earnings 
of wife and children and from boarders and lodgers 
is created. Thus, "sweating" and interference with 
normal family life are results. 

Second, irregularity of income is in itself a breeder 
of wasteful living. A family may be in want for 
weeks; it may be in comfortable circumstances and in 
a position to save for the next few weeks. Studies 
of family life among workers with irregular income 
have shown that imprudence is encouraged by the very 
irregularity of the providence. 

Third, uncertainty of regular income and of regular 
employment can not but have deleterious effects upon 
the worker's efficiency and his contentment. Worry 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 171 

over a matter of such vital importance as one's liveli- 
hood, especially when the welfare of the family is at 
stake, is recognized as a prolific cause of the individual's 
deterioration. It has been observed that workmen in 
the iron and steel industry, for example, lose skill dur- 
ing any shutdow^n that lasts more than a few days.^^ 
Irregular employment tends to demoralize the worker 
and to make him not only incapable of sustained effort, 
but unwilling to work regularly 

Fourth, the tendency is for the worker to lose 
rather than to gain industrial status when he is thrown 
out of employment. It has been repeatedly found by 
investigators that the worker, especially where he is 
the breadwinner of a family, is likely to take any job 
he can get when he is unemployed. Sometimes this 
is a steady job, but often at a lower rate of wages than 
the one he lost. More frequently, in the extreme neces- 
sity for having an income of some sort, he gets a 
temporary job because temporary jobs are more easy 
to get. The probability is that he will, when weakened 
by the lack of adequate food and healthful living con- 
ditions, and demoralized by irregular habits of work 
and living, gradually drift into the casual labor class. 
Of 7,000 applications for jobs from workers applying 
at the Cooperative Employment Bureau in San Fran- 
cisco, according to testimony before the Commission on 
Industrial Relations, one-half were incapacitated for 
work from lack of nourishment, disease and exposure.*^ 

*8 Conditions of Employment in the Iron and Steel Industry, Vol. iii, p. 380, 
*» Testimony of H. R. Bogart, Financial Secretary of Associative Charities, 
San Francisco Hearings on Seasonal Labor Problem in California. 



172 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

A study of 5,000 dependent families coming under the 
care of the Charity Organization Society in New York 
City showed that unemployment was a cause of dis- 
abiHty of over 69 per cent, of the families. The Fed- 
eral Immigration Commission records of over 30,000 
charity seekers in 41 industrial centers (excluding New 
York City), involving 118,000 persons, showed that 
unemployment was a cause in 43.2 per cent, of the 
cases. The casual laborers at the docks in New York 
are comprised in large part of those who have gradu- 
ally lost their status in industries and the dock worker 
continues to slip down in the scale until he reaches the 
class of "shenangoes," the down-and-out longshoremen 
capable of only light work, and finally becomes a bur- 
den upon the city or private charity. 

Fifth, there is thus created a great class of irregu- 
larly employed persons, composed of casual male 
workers and women and children workers. It is upon 
this kind of labor supply that "parasitic" industries are 
able to exist, and that other industries are able to 
rely, for unskilled w^ork without regard to the welfare 
of the worker. Low wages can be paid because the 
supply of cheap labor is so great, and women and chil- 
dren are called into industry for a few weeks or a few 
months in the year at wages far below the standard 
necessary to maintain regularly employed workers. 

The evidence on this phase of the problem is so 
extensive and so conclusive that it is not necessary to 
restate it in detail. The Commission on Industrial Rela- 
tions' investigations and hearings on labor conditions 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 173 

in California, for example, brought out the fact that, 
while the great majority of workers in the California 
canneries are women and children, the seasonal irregu- 
larity of emplo3'ment is so great that there has grown 
up a large class of migratory homeless laborers. It 
has been estimated that 100,000 unskilled Vv^orkers are 
employed in California fruit and vegetable growing 
and canning and that probably one-third of these labor- 
ers have no permanent voting place, home or family. 
These drift from place to place during the various sea- 
sons, concentrating in the large tov/ns and cities in 
November and December. In 1913-1914 San Francisco, 
Los Angeles and Sacramento each had thousands of 
these migratory laborers, from 10 to 40 per cent, of 
them being destitute, in addition to the thousands that 
drift during the winter from the colder climates of 
Nevada and Oregon and even the Middle West. Dur- 
ing the winter of 1913-1914, 2,500 unemployed la- 
borers overflowed from San Francisco and drifted into 
Sacramento, Oakland, Benecia, Roseville, Woodland 
and other localities in search of work, shelter and food. 
The same condition was found to be true also in 
the Middle V\^est and in the East, not simply because 
of seasonal industries, but in. industries that are among 
the most independent of seasons. In the steel indus- 
try, for instance, it was found that ''besides the fluc- 
tuations due to industrial conditions, there is also much 
unsteady employment due to the fact that many of the 
men do not retain any one position for a very long 
period, but go from plant to plant and take whatever 



174 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

work they can secure wherever it is offered. . . . 
Many of the men leave on the slightest rumor of a 
shutdown in the hope of obtaining work elsewhere 
before really serious trouble has come." ^^ The shift- 
ing of the labor force in one large plant in each of the 
years 1905 to 1910 was found to be as follows : 



1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 
Total employees during the year 25,654 29,644 28,313 17,747 24,523 30,040 
New employees during the year 14,023 13,983 11,705 4,169 10,792 13,043 
Per cent, of total employees leav- 
ing plant and not returning 38 44 51 22 30 48 
Pei- cent, of total employees leav- 
ing work temporarily .... 26 2Z 24 39 33 20 



To sum up, the effects of unemployment are three- 
fold, according to their incidence: 

1. The effects upon the workers are insecurity of eco- 
nomic status with a large percentage losing their status 
and becoming subject to decreased, irregular and often 
insufficient income, with its attendant misery, inability 
to regain economic competence, demoralization and 
dependency. 

2. The effects upon industry are lessened efficiency 
of a large proportion of workers, and the creation of 
a casual labor supply which affords the opportunity for 
uneconomical cutting down of labor costs, assists in cre- 
ating a condition whereby grossly overcapitalized corpor- 
ations can exist in competition with soundly managed 
business, calls into existence parasitic industries that, 
under other than maladjusted conditions, could not live, 
and permits an irregularization of industry which is 

^^ Conditions of Labor in the Iron and Steel Industry, vol. iii, p. 380. 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 175 

beneficial neither to business nor to the workers, nor 
to communities or the nation as a whole. 

3. The effect upon the community, particularly in 
those localities where irregular employment is most pro- 
nounced, is the presence of an unstable, shifting popula- 
tion, composed of non-home-owning, ill-paid workers 
and their families unable to discharge the responsibili- 
ties of the average citizen, who, living according to low 
standards, are subject to disease, and who frequently 
become burdens upon the public as dependents and delin- 
quents. The economic loss alone to a community is 
great, while the loss in other respects is incalculable. 



176 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 



V 
WORKING CONDITIONS 

HOURS OF LABOR 

The Trend Tozvard a Shorter Working Day 

Significant develoiDiiients have recently occurred in 
the movement for shortening the hours of labor. The 
most important piece of eight-hour day legislation was 
probably the temporary and emergency railroad law of 
September 3, 191 6, which was enacted to avoid the oc- 
currence of a threatened strike. It declared "eight hours 
shall be deemed a day's work and the measure of standard 
of a day's work" for the purpose of reckoning the com- 
pensation for services of engine and train crews in inter- 
state commerce. 

The judgment of American society as to the length of 
the work day is indicated by the fact that all States of 
the Union, besides the Federal Government, with the ex- 
ception of six, have some sort of legislation limiting the 
hours of labor. Where States and cities have dealt with 
labor they have signalized their support of the short work 
day by decreeing its application to public works. This is 
the case in 28 States, not including the territories of 
Hawaii and Porto Rico. Wherever legislation has en- 
tered the field of private emplo3^ment, it has done so wit!i 
a view^ to ameliorating conditions in the more arduous 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 177 

occupations where the evil effects of long hours are the 
most threatening. Fourteen States limit the hours to 8 
in mines, 9 States in smelters, i State in electric light 
and power plants, 3 States in coke ovens, 2 States in blast 
furnaces, 2 States in cement and plaster mills, i State in 
plate glass works, 5 States in rolling, rod and stamp mills, 
3 States in tunnels, 2 States in high air pressure works, 
I State in irrigation works, 8 States for railroad tele- 
graphers ; and 9 States have limited the work day in gen- 
eral to 8 hours unless otherwise stipulated by contract. 
This, however, is a useless restriction — or rather no re- 
striction in practise as it is quite simple to make the neces- 
sary stipulation. There are 2y States which limit the 
hours of work to 9 a day, 19 which limit them to 10, i 
to II, and 5 to 12, but only in certain hazardous occupa- 
tions or employments liable to the abuse of excessive 
hours, such as transportation and continuous industries. 
Two States have adopted the limitation of the hours of 
labor in ordinary manufacturing without giving con- 
sideration to the excessive arduousness of the occupation. 
Mississippi declared 1 1 hours a working day, but did not 
penalize overtime. Oregon, in its law of 1913, declared 
''that no person shall be hired nor permitted to work for 
wages, under any conditions or terms, for longer hours 
or days of service than is consistent with his health and 
physical well-being and ability to promote the general 
welfare by his increasing usefulness as a healthy and in- 
telligent citizen." The law prohibits the employment of 
any one for more than 10 hours in any one day, with cer-. 
tain exceptions, but permits overtime not in excess of 3 



178 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

hours, penalizing such overtime by requiring payment of 
time and one-half of the regular wage. This law of 
Oregon and the Federal eight-hour railroad law already 
referred to, establish the principle of the short working 
day as the measure for the payment of wages and the 
standard of a day's work regardless of whether the actual 
work to be done can be completed within the specified 
hours or not. The two laws differ, however, in that the 
Federal law is merely a temporary measure, a sort of 
compulsory investigation law, while the Oregon law estab- 
lishes a public policy for that State. 

Whatever may be the net effect of legislation in reduc- 
ing hours of labor, it is probably true that more, or as 
much, has been secured through private collective bar- 
gaining between employers and workingmen. In fact, 
organized labor through the Convention of the American 
Federation of Labor in 19 15 recorded itself as against 
securing the eight-hour day through legislation rather 
than through private negotiation. This was, indeed, an 
extraordinary resolution, and it is quite probable that 
the fact that the resolution was introduced in the Con- 
vention by the socialist element may have had something 
to do with its defeat by that group in the Federation which 
is violently opposed to everything favored by the socialist 
wing. Partizan passion may have obscured the issue. 
It seems difficult to explain it otherwise. 

Private bargaining has attained the best results in 
shortening the working day in the skilled trades and in the 
cities where labor is more intelligent, aggressive and co- 
herent. At the present time, trade union members in 46 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 179 

different trades have secured for themselves the eight- 
hour day through agreements v^ith their employers. Ac- 
cording to the report of the Annual Convention of the 
American Federation of Labor of 191 5, these trades in- 
clude carpenters and joiners, coal miners, typographical 
printers, cigar-makers, granite cutters, painters, deco- 
rators and paper-hangers, plasterers, plumbers and steam- 
fitters, lathers, tile layers, composition roofers, railroad 
telegraphers, stone cutters, marble workers, sheet metal 
workers, elevator constructors, bookbinders, hodcarriers 
and building laborers, brick, tile and terra-cotta workers, 
cement workers, compressed air workers, steam engineers 
(in building construction), pavers, rammermen, flagg 
layers, bridge and stone curb setters, paving cutters, plate 
printers, printing pressmen, stereotypers and electro- 
typers, tunnel and subway constructors, bridge and 
structural iron workers, asbestos workers, quarry 
workers, metal miners, flint glass workers, slate and 
tile roofers, cutting die and cutter makers, stationary fire- 
men, papermakers, photoengravers, powder and high 
explosive workers, and bricklayers. 

In the machine trades, a movement for the reduction 
of hours, notable for its rapid progress,^ took place dur- 
ing the late summer of 191 5. Altho it is true that this 
movement chiefly affected firms having contracts for 
making war munitions, it is none the less true that the 
gain will probably be permanent, as the common ex- 
perience is that it is difBcult to increase hours of labor 



^ Monthly Review of the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, Washing- 
ton, February, 1916. p. 37. 



i8o CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

once they have been reduced. The reduced hours of 
labor in these estabHshments have, in practically all cases, 
been effected with no reduction in weekly wages, while in 
many cases there have been increases in wages. Alto- 
gether, 83 firms established an 8-hour working day; 3 
were reported as having established a 49 >^ -hour week, 
5 a 50-hour week, and 2, a 54-hour week. 

An investigation by the Federal Bureau of Labor 
Statistics in 191 5 included data from 47 cities lo- 
cated in 32 different States, covered 5,548 scales or 
contracts, which affected 676,571 union employees in 
II occupation groups, and showed a tendency toward 
reduction in the hours of labor of union workers. 
Over one-half (53.7 per cent., or 2,992 cases) of the 
workers included worked 8 hours or less per day. 
The II occupation groups included in these statistics 
comprised bakery trades, brewery and bottling-house 
workmen ; building trades ; chauffeurs, teamsters, drivers ; 
freight-handlers ; granite and stone trades ; metal trades ; 
mill work; printing and publishing (book and job); 
printing and publishing (newspaper) ; soft drink estab- 
lishment employees. 

Other investigations made annually by the U. S. Bureau 
of Labor Statistics follow the movement in hours of labor 
in some of the principal industries. For the men's cloth- 
ing industry, full time hours per week in 19 14 were re- 
duced I per cent, over those prevailing in 1913, 6 per cent, 
over 1912, 7 per cent, over 191 1. Full time hours per 
v/eek in this industry in 19 14 varied from 44 to 60; and 
the average for most occupations was 51 and 53. In that 



IN 'AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 



i«i 



respect, hand cutters and machine cutters were the best 
situated, working respectively 48.6 and 48.4 hours per 
week. In the hosiery and underwear industry in 1914 the 
average hours were 55 a week, which was a reduction of 
5 per cent, over hours prevaiHng in 191 o for 21 occupa- 
tion-groups in the industry. For some of the principal 
occupations in the industry the weekly hours in 191 4 
were as follows : 



Hosiery and underwear, 
male 55.3 

Finishers, underwear, fe- 
male. 54.1 

Inspectors, folders, hosiery 
and underwear, female 54.5 

Winders, hosiery and un- 
derwear, female . . . . 54.1 



Knitters, footers, or top- 
pers, hosiery, female . . 54.9 

Loopers, hosiery and un- 
derwear, female . . . . 54.8 

Seamers, underwear, fe- 
male 54.1 



In woolen goods the hours of labor per week have been 
reduced 3 per cent, in 19 14 below the prevailing hours of 
1910; the average weekly hours were generally 55. The 
data for certain occupations are as follows : 



Burners, female . . . . 54.6 
Laborers, dye house, male 54.8 
Weavers, male 55.2 



Weavers, female . . . . 54.8 
Spinners, mule, male . . 55.8 



The tendency continued in 19 14 toward a reduction of 
hours in the cotton goods manufacturing industry, being 
3 per cent, lower than in 191 1; the average hours per 
week being 56.5 for cotton goods manufacturing and 
finishing. In certain occupations the hours per week 
were as follows : 



Spinners, female . . . . 56.9 

Weavers, male 56.8 

Weavers, female . . . . 55.8 

Loom fixers, male . . . . 56.8 



Laborers, dye house, male 56.1 

Fullers, male 56.0 

Printers, male 55.5 



i82 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

enough to allow a rest and return home, but generally 
involves wasting time in the downtown sections. 

As regards the States in which the proportion of wage- 
earners working in establishments observing y2 hours or 
over per week, it appears that in Colorado 11.4 per cent, 
are so engaged, while Texas comes second with 10 per 
cent, Oklahoma third with 9.3 per cent., and Louisiana 
fourth with 8.4 per cent. These high averages are to be 
explained by the fact that in these States are centered a 
fairly high proportion of those industries which by their 
economic nature are continuous or observe long hours 
everywhere. 

Three States have made investigations into the amount 
of seven-day work in certain occupations. The most re- 
cent one in Massachusetts is that of 1907. Out of 57,955 
employees in commercial employments and trades re- 
ported in the course of the investigation, about 42 per 
cent, worked seven days a week. Minnesota since 1901 
has reported in the factory inspection reports the number 
of employees who worked seven days a week. This 
varied from the lowest in 1905, or 3.7 per cent to a maxi- 
mum in 1909, or II per cent., i.e., affecting over 21,000 
employees. In New York the Department of Labor re- 
ported in 19 10 that out of trade union employees in trans- 
portations, personal service, post-office work and station- 
ary engineers, 69,907, or about 40 per cent., worked seven 
days a week. This high average is, of course, accounted 
for by the fact that the largest proportion reported were 
in steam railroad service. The following table shows the 
proportion of wage-earners in specified industries who 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 183 

work, and in 1913, 36 plants reported 79.8 per cent, 
of all their employees in seven-day occupations as 
compared with 20 plants which reported in 1907 
97.2 per cent, of their employees in such occupations. No 
definite statement as to actual reductions in seven-day 
work can be made for the other departments of the steel- 
making industry, because the amount of seven-day work 
is dependent upon industrial conditions, a year of large 
production making for considerable seven-day work, and 
one of small production usually resulting in a reduction. 
In 1913, however, only 10.8 per cent, of the employees of 
the 10 plants covered by the Bureau of Labor Statistics 
worked seven days per week; in fact, the six-day week 
prevailed generally through the seven-year period, 1907 
to 19 13. In open hearth furnaces in 19 13, 34.2 per cent, 
of the employees worked generally 7 days per week, and 
in blooming mills 12 per cent. 

The Federal Census of December, 19 14, the results of 
which are soon to appear, records a continued tendency 
toward a reduction in the length of the work day. 

The Working Day in the Principal Industries 

The 1909 Census of Manufactures showed that for all 
industries in the United States covering over six and a 
half million wage-earners, 76 per cent, were employed in 
establishments operating over 54 to 60 hours a week in- 
clusive, practically 8 per cent, in establishments observing 
a working week of less than 48 hours, 7 per cent, in 48 
to 54 hour plants inclusive, 5 per cent, in those operating 



i84 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

over 60 but under y2 hours a week, and approximately 
4 per cent, in those operating y2 hours or over a week. 

The census figures regarding hours of labor are ad- 
mittedly inadequate in certain respects. No attempt was 
made to ascertain exactly the actual number of employees 
in manufacturing industries working a given number of 
hours per week. Variations from one period to another 
in an establishment were disregarded, and no note was 
taken of those employees in an establishment who worked 
longer or shorter hours than the prevailing hours worked 
by the majority of the employees. It is, however, gen- 
erally true that all employees in an establishment work 
the same number of hours per week. 

Considering less than 54 hours a week as a reasonably 
short working week, the Census enumerated 9 short-hour 
industries : Artificial flowers ; feathers and plumes ; print- 
ing and publishing ; fur goods ; malt liquors ; marble and 
stone work; patent medicines and compounds and drug- 
gists' preparations; women's clothing; millinery and lace 
goods ; turpentine and rosin. In marble and stone work, 
in printing and publishing, and in the brewery industry, 
40 per cent, of the wage-earners were in establishments in 
Avhich the prevailing hours of labor were 51 hours or less 
a week. 

As compared with general manufactures, mines and 
quarries show more favorable conditions as respects hours 
of labor. This is probably due to legislation which has 
tended to protect the laborer in the more hazardous oc- 
cupations. It is also true that the mining industry is 
highly organized. Only one large operator in the 



IN 'AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 185 

bituminous region has succeeded in remaining non-union. 
He employs no union men and operates on the nine-hour 
day, while all other operators observe the union day of 
eight hours. The organized mine workers have now com- 
menced agitation for the seven-hour day. 

Excluding petroleum and natural gas wells, the census 
of mines and quarries (1909) showed that about one- 
half, or 48.2 per cent, of the mining and quarrying en- 
terprises of the United States were on the eight-hour 
basis, while the other half were on a nine- or ten-hour 
schedule. Deep gold mines showed most favorable con- 
ditions, over nine-tenths operating on an eight-hour basis. 
Five-sixths of the copper mines, three- fourths of lead and 
zinc mines, more than two-thirds of all bituminous coal 
mines, three-fifths of placer mines, and slightly less than 
one-half of the granite quarries were operating at the 
time of the Census on an eight-hour schedule. The 
Census figures of 1909 show the following distribution of 
wage-earners according to prevailing hours of labor: 

Per cent, of wage-earners in 
establishments where the 
prevailing hours were 
Total 
United States average 

number 

New England 1,101,290 

Middle Atlantic 2,207,747 

East North Central . . . . 1,513,764 

West North Central . . . . Z7A,ZZ7 

South Atlantic 663,015 

East South Central . . . . 261,772 

West South Central . . . . 204,520 

Mountain 75,435 

Pacific 213,166 

United States 6,615,046 15.2 76.1 8.7 



Under 


54 to 60 


Over 


54 


inclusive 


60 


9.1 


89.2 


1.8 


19.3 


73.6 


7.1 


14.9 


77.9 


7.2 


18.4 


74.8 


6.9 


11.8 


68.5 


19.6 


10.5 


66.8 


22.7 


9.8 


66.7 


23.6 


18.3 


6S.6 


16.1 


20.6 


72.2 


7.2 



i86 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

Decidedly contrasting conditions, however, still exist 
in other industries, particularly in those industries termed 
by the Germans ''heavy industries." These are usually 
continuous employments. Summing up the figures of the 
Census of Manufactures of 1909 it appears that a trifle 
over 230,000 employees in the manufacturing industries 
of the United States, or approximately 3 per cent., v^orked 
72 hours and over per week. Certain industries are con- 
spicuous in regard to the proportion of the total average 
number of wage-earners who work 72 hours or more per 
week. Thus in order of their position in that respect 
stand the following ten industries : 

Per cent, earners working 
prevailingly 72 hours and 
over per week 
Industries 

Sugar and molasses (not including sugar refining) . . 95.0 

Blastfurnaces (Census) 86.0 

Blast furnaces (Bureau of Labor Statistics) .. .. 72.8 

Oil, cottonseed and cake 76.4 

Beet sugar 75.6 

Ice, manufactured 65.5 

Oil, linseed 60.0 

Glucose and starch 57.8 

Gas, illuminating 56.4 

Sulphuric, nitric and mixed acids 44.3 

Cement 39.4 

Over 40 per cent, of the employees in the iron and 
steel industry in 19 lo, according to the Bureau of Labor 
Statistics, worked y2 hours and over per week. About 
one-fifth worked 84 hours and over per week. 

In the wood pulp and paper industry the Tariff Board 
report (1911) showed that slightly over 15 per cent, of 
the employees (7,616) covered by the investigation 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 187 

worked on a two-shift basis, i.e., a 12-hour day. Ac- 
cording to the 13th (1909) Census figures, about 21 per 
cent, in that industry worked y2 hours a week prevail- 
ingly. For the United States as a whole, therefore, it 
may be safe to estimate that 15 to 20 per cent, of the 
employees in the wood pulp and paper industry worked 
y2 hours or over a week. 

As calculated from reports of the Bureau of Labor 
Statistics, about 60 per cent, out of 459 employees who 
did overtime work in April, 1908, in telegraph offices had 
an overtime day of 12 hours or over. No figures were 
available as to how many days were worked at that rate 
during the year. It may, however, be added that about 24 
per cent, of the overtime workers during April, 1908, 
worked 50 or more hours during the month, that is, ap- 
proximately two additional hours for each regular work 
day. 

With the telephone companies investigated by the 
Bureau of Labor Statistics in 1909, overtime of two and 
one-half hours was worked at least one day a week. 
Sunday work was usual for two Sundays out of the 
month. This meant in general 57! to 61 hours of actual 
work per week, as the regular day was from 8^ to 9 hours 
per day. Practically all the employees were women. 

For both telephone and telegraph companies the hard- 
ships of work were not connected with long hours of 
actual work so much as with the split trick, i.e., a trick 
on which the hours of an employee are divided into two 
periods of work in the course of the 24, involving a wait 
between working spells. This wait is usually not long 



i88 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

enough to allow a rest and return home, but generally 
involves wasting time in the downtown sections. 

As regards the States in which the proportion of wage- 
earners working in establishments observing y2 hours or 
over per week, it appears that in Colorado 1 1 .4 per cent, 
are so engaged, while Texas comes second with 10 per 
cent., Oklahoma third with 9.3 per cent., and Louisiana 
fourth with 8.4 per cent. These high averages are to be 
explained by the fact that in these States are centered a 
fairly high proportion of those industries which by their 
economic nature are continuous or observe long hours 
everywhere. 

Three States have made investigations into the amount 
of seven-day work in certain occupations. The most re- 
cent one in Massachusetts is that of 1907. Out of 57,955 
employees in commercial employments and trades re- 
ported in the course of the investigation, about 42 per 
cent, worked seven days a week. Minnesota since 1901 
has reported in the factory inspection reports the number 
of employees who worked seven days a week. This 
varied from the lowest in 1905, or 3.7 per cent, to a maxi- 
mum in 1909, or II per cent., i.e., affecting over 21,000 
employees. In New York the Department of Labor re- 
ported in 1 9 10 that out of trade union employees in trans- 
portations, personal service, post-office work and station- 
ary engineers, 69,907, or about 40 per cent, worked seven 
days a week. This high average is, of course, accounted 
for by the fact that the largest proportion reported were 
in steam railroad service. The following table shows the 
proportion of wage-earners in specified industries who 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 



189 



worked y2 hours or longer, according to the Census of 
1909: 



INDUSTRIES IN WHICH LARGE NUMBERS OF WAGE-EARNERS WERE 

EMPLOYED 72 HOURS OR MORE PER WEEK; 1909 

Wage-earners: 1909 — In establishments 
where prevailing hours were 

, ^ . 

Total 72 Over 72 

Industry average ^ ^ ^ ^ a ^ 

number Number Per cent. Number Per cent. 

Beet sugar 7,204 508 7.1 4,934 68.5 

Cement 26,775 146 0.5 10,427 38.9 

Chemicals 23,714 514 2.2 4,193 17.7 

Coke 29,273 49 .2 3,231 11.0 

Flour and grist mills 39,453 7,132 18.1 338 0.9 

Gas, illuminating and heating.. 37,215 2,890 7.8 18,473 49.6 

Glucose and starch 4,773 658 13.8 2,102 44.0 

Ice, manufactured 16,114 2,128 13.2 8,421 52.3 

Iron and steel, blast furnaces . . 38,429 1,304 3.4 31,729 82.6 
Iron and steel, steel works and 

rolling mills 240,076 49,364 20.6 2,954 1.2 

Lime 13,897 415 3.0 1,145 8.2 

Liquors, distilled 6,430 755 11.7 42 0.7 

Oil, cottonseed and cake . . . . 17,071 12,568 73.6 477 2.8 

Oil, linseed 1,452 616 42.4 255 17.6 

Paper and wood pulp 75,978 15,706 20.7 751 1.0 

Petroleum refining 13,929 222 1.6 2,366 17.0 

Salt 4,936 431 8.^ 156 3.2 

Smelting and refining (not from 

ore) 2,147 23 1.1 664 30.9 

Sugar and molasses 4,127 2,092 50.7 1,828 44.3 

Sugar, refining 9,399 2,217 23.6 743 7.9 

Sulphuric, nitric and mixed acids 2,252 130 5.8 867) 38.5 
Wood distillation (not including 

turpentine and rosin) , . . . 2,721 242 8.9 699 25.7 



Special consideration may properly be given to the 
facts as to the working hours of women in industry, who 
comprise between lo and 15 per cent, of the seven odd 
million wage-earners in the country. State laws have 
been rather regardful as to the need of limiting the work- 
ing hours of women and children on the ground that 
these are a special class of the population whose welfare 
is too closely bound up with the general welfare to be 



I90 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

left unprotected. While courts have held that laws limit- 
ing the hours of adult wage-earners in ordinary occu- 
pations and unattended by special dangers to health are 
unconstitutional, they have not failed to support such 
legislation in the interest of women and children. 

One of the earliest industries women and children en- 
tered was the cotton industry, and here, too, laws regu- 
lating their hours of employment were first introduced. 
Even as recently as 1908, however, some very undesirable 
conditions were disclosed by an investigation of the 
Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.^ Long hours for 
their women employees, that is, 55 to 60 a week, were 
characteristic of such industries as metal and paper-box 
manufacture, canning and preserving, cigar-box manu- 
facture, manufacture of needles and pins, screws, nuts 
and bolts, confectionery and cracker industries, manu- 
facture of tobacco and snuff, stamped enamel ware, pot- 
tery, and laundries, the last named more particularly. 
Shorter hours {i.e., 50 or under a week) of labor pre- 
vailed for women and child wage-earners in the textile 
industries and ready-made clothing manufacture. In 
stores, holiday work was found decidedly frequent and 
arduous, running to dangerous limits in the absence of 
restrictive laws. 

Without going into extended details, the following 
statement may serve to show the net results as to hours 
of labor of women wage-earners in certain cities engaged 
in the men's ready-made clothing industry.* 

8 Report on condition of women and child wage-earners in the United States; 
Washington. 1910-1913. 19 vols. 
* Op. cit.. Vol. II., p. 107. 



IN 'AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 191 

Average hours per 

Number affected week for women 

, ' . . ^ , 

Cities 16 years Under 16 16 years Under 16 

and aver years and over years 

Chicago 3,803 317 48.4 45.3 

Rochester 1,367 32 492 44.3 

New York 2,712 39 49.9 54.4 

Philadelphia 1,049 88 47.4 50.6 

Baltimore 1,397 128 45.8 40.4 

In the metal trades, according to the authority of the 
Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics/ in 233 establish- 
ments employing in 1908 22,745 women over 16 years of 
age, 33 per cent, worked less than 55 hours a week; 56 
per cent, worked 55 hours and under 60, and 11 per cent, 
worked 60 hours a week. As for children under 16 years 
of age, 29 per cent, worked under 55 hours a week, 39 
per cent., 55 hours and under 60, and 32 per cent, worked 
60 hours a week. A larger proportion of children under 
16 years of age worked 60 hours a week than of women 
above that age. 

Since this general investigation, however, was made, 
there has undoubtedly been an improvement in conditions 
of the kind noted. Minimum wage commissions and other 
organizations have long interested themselves in the 
problem. Special administrative measures provided 
through liberalizing legislation have assumed active regu- 
lation of the employment of women looking toward better 
wages and shorter hours of work; more particularly is 
this true as regards women and girls in stores. 

»Op. Cit., Vol. V, p. 28. 



192 CONDITIONS OF. LABOR 

INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENTS 

The fact that workmen's compensation laws are now 
in effect in 31 States and in Alaska and Hawaii is ample 
evidence of public recognition of the industrial accident 
problem in the United States. The rapid growth of the 
"safety first" movement justifies the belief that em- 
ployers as well as the public have realized the economic 
importance of preventing the waste of human life and 
efficiency which results from accidents in industrial estab- 
lishments. Already the industrial accident hazard is 
being considerably reduced by the installation of safety 
devices, by gradually eliminating risks which were once 
thought to be necessary, but which now are seen to be 
avoidable, and by educational measures designed to make 
the individual more careful and intelligent in his work in 
occupations where there is an element of danger. In this 
respect, working conditions have been much improved 
during the last few years. It is safe to say that the bene- 
ficial results are stimulating employers and employees to 
take an interest in accident prevention which is more than 
mere obedience to statutory regulations, and that the 
movement for "safety first" is accelerating. 

Extent of Industrial 'Accidents. — Probably the most 
trustworthy estimate of the extent of industrial accidents 
is that made for 19 13 by Mr. Frederick L. Hoffman, of 
the Prudential Life Insurance Company. His estimate 
is based on statistics from the publications of the U. S. 
Census, the U. S. Bureau of Mines, various State reports, 
and the industrial experience of the Prudential Company. 
"The probable approximate number of fatal industrial 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 193 

accidents," he says, ''among American wage-earners, in- 
cluding both sexes, may be conservatively estimated at 
25,000 for the year 19 13, and the number of injuries in- 
volving a disability of more than four weeks ... at 
approximately 700,000." ^ The lack of accurate and 
comparable statistics relating to industrial accidents 
renders any estimate of doubtful value; only when the 
most conservative data are used in making a general esti- 
mate, as Mr. Hoffman has done, is the estimate of any 
possible value in indicating the gravity of the accident 
hazard as a condition affecting the American workingman. 
As Mr. Hoffman points out, "At the present time there 
are no entirely complete and trustworthy industrial acci- 
dent statistics for even a single important Industry in the 
United States. The most reliable data are those for the 
iron and steel industry, mining, and railways. For most 
of the other groups the assumed industrial accident rates 
are relatively low, and in all probability the actual hazards 
. . . are somewhat higher than" those upon which he 
based his estimate. This lack of data is due to the absence 
of uniform requirements in the various States for the re- 
porting of industrial accidents, to the practise of using 
the average number of employees as a basis for determin- 
ing rates, and to the failure to take account of the period 
during which the employees are employed. As the ex- 
perience of workmen's compensation laws increases, how- 
ever, more accurate and complete statistics may be ex- 

«U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Bulletin 157 — Industrial Accident Statis- 
tics, by Frederick L. Hoflfman. p. 6. In estimating the number of injuries involv- 
ing a disability of more than four weeks, Mr. Hoffman has used the ratio of 
Austrian experience as indicated by statistics of fatal and non-fatal industrial 
accidents in Austria, 1897 to 1911 (Ibid., p. 147). 



194 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

pected. Already a well-defined effort is being made to 
secure greater uniformity and accuracy of reports. 

Occupational Accident Hazards. — Even such statistics 
as are now available point very clearly to the fact that in 
some occupations the danger of accidents is much greater 
than in others. Altho the data are not accurate enough 
for exact determinations of occupational hazards, they 
are sufficiently accurate to indicate that industrial acci- 
dents constitute a very much more serious condition of 
work in certain occupations than in others and that the 
worker in those occupations is subjected to the danger of 
injury or death more frequently than the average in- 
dividual in other walks of life. Metal and coal mining 
appear to be the most hazardous, with railroad employ- 
ment, quarrying, and the lumber industry well up the list 
of dangerous occupations. They are apparently more 
hazardous than the occupation of soldier in the United 
States Army, and between two and three times as hazard- 
ous as the average for all occupations in which males are 
employed.^ The accident mortality statistics of the U. S. 
Census Bureau, while unsatisfactory for purposes of 
exact analysis, are sufficiently accurate to present in 
statistical form those wide differences in the occupational 

' The following table of estimates was prepared by Mr. Frederick L. Hoffman 
showing the probable accident rates for some of the typical and representative 
groups of occupations. Mr. Hoffman presented the table in his study of indus- 
trial accident statistics which has already been referred to, with the following 
note: 

"The fatality rates used in this estimate are approximations. They are 
slightly at variance with the exact rates for certain industries, particularly min- 
ing, for the year 1913. For metal mines in 1913 the fatality rate, according to 
the Bureau of Mines, was 3.54 per 1,000; for coal mines. 3.73; for quarries, 1.72. 
In the estimate it is assumed that for these industries in particular the approxi- 
mate rates indicate more accurately the average risk for a period of years, it 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 195 

hazards from accidents which are already established by 
observation and in general experience. The table on p. 
196 presents the combined statistics for two years for all 
occupations, and for certain occupations, in the registra- 
tion area, the occupations being selected (some being non- 
industrial) for the purpose of indicating comparisons. 



being considered that even the official rates fall short of absolute accuracy and 
completeness in the absence of a Federal law making the reporting of mine acci- 
dents compulsory upon all operators. The estimate was arrived at before Techni- 
cal Paper 94 of the Bureau of Mines was published." 



ESTIMATE OF FATAL INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENTS IN THE UNITED 
STATES IN 1913, BY INDUSTRY GROUPS 

Industry Group Number Fatal Rate 

employees a industrial per 

^«^^^ of accidents o 1,000 

Metal mining 170,000 680 4.00 

Coalmining 750,000 2,625 3.50 

Fisheries .. .. 150,000 450 3.00 

Navigation 150,000 450 3.00 

Railroad employees 1,750,000 4,200 2.40 

Electricians (light and power) 68,000 153 2.25 

Navy and Marine Corps 62,000 115 1.85 

Quarrying 150,000 255 1.70 

Lumber industry 531,000 797 1.50 

Soldiers, United States Army 73,000 109 1.49 

Building and construction 1,500,000 1,875 1.25 

Draymen, teamsters, etc 686,000 686 1.00 

Street railway employees 320,000 320 1.00 

Watchme , policemen, firemen 200,000 150 .75 

Telephone and telegraph (including line- 
men) 245,000 123 .50 

Agricultural pursuits, including forestry 

and animal husbandry 12,000,000 4,200 .35 

Manufacturing (general) 7,277,000 1,819 .25 

All other occupied males 4,678,000 3,508 .75 

All occupied males 30,760,000 22,515 .73 

All occupied females .. 7,200,000 540 .075 

a Partly estimated. 



196 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

ACCIDENT MORTALITY. UNITED STATES REGISTRATION AREA. BY 
AGE GROUPS, IN SPECIFIED OCCUPATIONS, 1908 AND 1909 s 

Percent, of deaths due to accidents and injuries 



Age Group |* | «g^ g -gS 



<; o c/5 o »i; H ^ 

15-19 26.4 17.3 17.9 28.6 40.0 24.1 

20-24 21.6 7.3 16.0 8.0 31.0 13.7 

25-34 17.9 5.4 17.4 9.9 27.1 10.6 

35-44 14.0 4.8 10.3 7.7 19.3 10.0 

45-54 10.1 4.5 7.6 9.4 12.5 6.6 

55-64 6.3 3.4 .... 5.0 6.8 5.3 

65 and over . . 3.6 3.6 4.4 3.0 2.5 4.7 



O U 




71.8 


80.6 


66.2 


73.3 


61.7 


66.1 


47.2 


55.8 


28.3 


45.7 


13.6 


29.3 


6.8 


18.3 



Total.. .. 10.5 5.9 12.9 9.3 16.0 8.8 39.3 52.5 

a Includes accountants, bookkeepers, clerks, and copyists. 

As the foregoing statistics suggest, the mortahty from 
accidents and injuries is much above the average among 
workers of working age in iron and steel manufacturing, 
mining and quarrying, and on railroads, and is far greater 
than among office workers, textile and glass workers, and 
even United States soldiers, sailors and marines. 

The industrial mortality experience of the Prudential 
Life Insurance Company permits more exact specifica- 
tions as to occupation, and covers a longer period of 
time, altho a more selected group of persons, than 
in the case of the Census mortality data. The follow- 
ing table presents the proportionate mortality of males 
from accidents in all occupations and in certain speci- 
fied industrial occupations which show unusually high 
accident mortality rates: 

8 Compiled from data in "Mortality Statictics," 1908 and 1909, U. S. Census 
Bureau, and published in U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Bulletin 157, supra 
cit.. pp. 23-30. 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 197 

PROPORTIONATE MORTALITY OF MALES FROM ACCIDENTS, BY 
OCCUPATIONS AND AGE GROUPS, PRUDENTIAL EXPERIENCE 
1907 TO 1912 8 
Percentage of deaths due to accidents among 

r — .^ 

I s s 2 1 -s i 

§ s -^ 1 I e^ Is I 

Age Group "S .S '^ ^ Z G ^ ^ -^ ^ -Z 

ouijpL,muww 

15-24 20.7 56.9 60.0 66.7 32.7 56.5 26.5 68.1 

25-34 12.8 42.3 18.5 83.3 21.3 34.3 25.9 55.2 

35-44 10.2 34.3 12.5 66.7 13.0 14.3 15.8 34.3 

45-54 8.9 20.4 28.6 66.7 11.8 12.1 10.2 38.3 

55-64 6.4 12.9 14.3 100.0 2.5 20.8 7.9 8.3 

65 and over .. 4.1 5.1 1.4 15.0 4.9 50.0 

TotaL. .. 9.4 23.2 24.7 72.0 13.1 25.6 15.4 49.6 
a Miscellaneous workers in iron and steel mills. 

Causes of Industrial Accidents. — Fundamentally, it 
may be said, industrial accidents are due to the failure 
on the part of industrial management to make provisions 
against accidents, and keep pace with the development of 
rapid, ponderous, and intricate machinery and dangerous 
processes, and to fatigue and strain caused by too long 
continued work and by monotonous work, and to care- 
lessness on the part of employees. With the realization 
that accidents are not necessary sacrifices to industry, 
much of the past indifference is passing away, the danger 
points in mechanical processes are being sought out, 
methods of industrial managements are being scrutinized 
in the light of the newer standard of valuing human life 
and efficiency, and educational efforts are resulting in a 
higher valuation of human efficiency and lives. No bet- 
ter indication of this fact is found than the collection and 
analysis of statistical data relating to the causes of indus- 
trial accidents as a necessary means to their prevention. 

'Ibid., pp. 115, 116, and 117. 



198 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

Several State reports have afforded an intelligent be- 
ginning in the study of the causes of accidents, and large 
numbers of employers are accumulating data from ex- 
perience in their own plants. The New York State De- 
partment of Labor has published annually statistics of 
accidents from 1901 to the present. Of the causes of 
2,819 fatal industrial accidents occurring during period 
1911 to 191 4, the percentage of distribution is as follows : 

COMPARATIVE PERCENTAGES OF FATAL ACCIDENTS IN FACTORIES, 

MINES AND QUARRIES, AND BUILDING AND ENGINEERING, IN 

THE STATE OF NEW YORK, 1911 TO 1914, BY MAIN CAUSES 

Building 
Factories Mines Engineering 

Mechanical power 42.3 26.8 31.6 

Heat and electricity 23.9 24.7 14.6 

Fall of person 18.4 8.2 33.2 

Weights and falling objects .. .. 7.5 36.1 15.0 

Miscellaneous 7.9 4.2 5.6 

Number of accidents 1,081 97 1,641 

More complete data were obtained for 19 14 than for 
preceding years. The 1914 report ^^ showed that of the 
various causes of non- fatal accidents by far the most 
significant was power machinery. To this factor were 
chargeable 26.7 per cent, out of a total of 88,314 non- 
fatal accidents reported during the year. Of this pro- 
portion 18.7 per cent, were chargeable to machines at 
which the person injured was working, 5.4 per cent, to 
conveying and hoisting machinery, 2.6 per cent, to trans- 
mission power. Next to power machinery as a factor in 
causing non-fatal accidents are weights and falling 
objects, which accounted for 24.4 per cent. ; hand tools 

" New York Department of Labor, Special Bulletin, issued under the direc- 
tion of the Industrial Commission, No. 75; Statistics of industrial accidents, 
J914. Prepared by the Bureau of Statistics and Information. 



IN ^AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 199 

accounted for 10.8 per cent. ; fall of person, 9.6 per cent.; 
heat and electricity, 6.9 per cent.; and vehicles and 
animals, 2.5 per cent.; while miscellaneous causes — in- 
cluding knocking against objects, stepping upon or strik- 
ing against nails, handling sharp objects, flying objects, 
whose source is unknown, poisoning gases, etc. — ac- 
counted for 1 9. 1 per cent. 

Power machinery was held to be responsible for 50 per 
cent, or over of the accidents in printing and paper goods, 
wood manufacturing, furs, leather and rubber goods, and 
in textiles." High proportions of accidents due to fall of 
person were shown for chemicals, oils, paints, etc. ; paper, 
clothing, millinery, laundry, etc. ; food, liquor, and to- 
bacco ; and water, light, and power. This was explained 
as due to the fact that a number of employees work on 
wet and slippery floors in many of these industries. A' 
special study was made of 1,571 machinery accidents 
during the years 19 13 and 19 14 with a view to ascertain- 
ing the relation of the use of guards to the occurrence of 
accidents. In 34.8 per cent, of the accidents guards were 
used and in 10.7 per cent, guards were provided but not 
used ; in 34 per cent, a guard was practicable but not pro- 
vided at the time of the accident, and in only 17 per cent, 
were guards not practicable. The Department was led 
to make the following statement : 

" The highest proportion of accidents due to power machinery were found in 
the following factory industries: 

Printing and paper goods 54.9 per cent. 

Wood manufacturing 54.5 per cent. 

Furs, leather and rubber goods 54.0 per cent. 

Textiles 49.3 per cent. 

Clothing, millinery, etc 44.2 per cent. 

Paper 37.0 per cent. 



200 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

"The two outstanding conclusions to be drawn from 
the facts as ascertained are these: First, that neither 
employers nor employees recognize the necessity of utiliz- 
ing to the fullest extent the known means of guarding 
machinery to prevent accidents; and, second, that our 
knowledge of practicable and effective machine guards is 
still elementary." 

The lack of uniformity in methods of reporting causes 
of industrial accidents in various States prevents com- 
parisons; at the same time the different methods of re- 
porting and presenting statistics permits the viewing of 
accident causes from different standpoints. For ex- 
ample, the principal causes of 474 fatal accidents oc- 
curring in Massachusetts during the year ending June 30, 
1913, are classified as follows: 

CAUSES OF FATAL ACCIDENTS, UNDER THE MASSACHUSETTS 

WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION ACT, JULY 1. 1912, 

TO JUNE 30, 1913 « 

Cause Fatal Cause Fatal 

accidents accidents 

Railroad equipment 119 Boiler explosions and burns 15 

Falls 66 Excavating 14 

Vehicles 43 Cranes 11 

Hand labor 27 Miscellaneous (unclassified) .. 11 

Elevators 33 Asphyxiation, drowning, etc... 10 

Electricity 25 All other causes 70 

Street railways 20 

Total 474 

The California Industrial Accident Commission's ex- 
perience for the year ending June 30, 191 5, may be sum- 
marized as follows: Of the 678 fatal accidents nearly 
22 per cent, were caused by collisions, 20.94 by persons 
falling, and 20.06 by "dangerous substances"; of 1,292 
accidents resulting in permanent injuries, 45 per cent. 

" First Annual Report of the Massachusetts Industrial Accident Board. 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 201 

were caused by machinery; of the 60,241 accidents re- 
sulting in temporary disabiHty, 28 per cent, were caused 
by falHng objects and 20 per cent, by ''dangerous sub- 
stances." ^^ 

Probably the most detailed study so far published 
of special causes of industrial accidents was made 
by the Wisconsin Industrial Commission and pub- 
lished in 1912. An analysis was made of 5,241 acci- 
dents by causes, of which 112, or 2.14 per cent., were 
fatal. It was found that the principal cause of acci- 
dents was collapse, falls, or hit by objects, numbering 
1,102, or 21.03 per cent, of the total. The next most 
important cause was accidents in connection with 
the loading or unloading of heavy objects, numbering 
600, or 11.45 per cent, of the accidents due to all causes. 
Accidents due to falls of all kinds numbered 684, or 13.06 
per cent, of the aggregate. These three groups of causes, 
therefore, accounted for 2,386 accidents, or 45.53 per 
cent, of the aggregate, for the year ending June 30, 191 2. 

Of the accidents due to falls, it may be noted, 10 per 
cent, were found to be falls from ladders, 21 per cent, 
from scaffolds, tramways, trestles, etc., 14 per cent, from 
wagons, cars and other vehicles, and 28 per cent, by 
slipping, stumbling, and jumping. Most of these ac- 
cidents, the Commission concluded, were preventable.^* 
The accidents resulting in burns occurred principally in 
hot-metal-working industries, particularly foundries, 
where there is danger from sparks and from splashes of 

13 Report of the California Industrial Accident Commission, July 1, 1914, to 
June 30, 1915. 

" Industrial Commission of Wisconsin, Shop Bulletin No. 3A. 



202 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

molten metal. ^^ The Commission pointed out that of the 
311 accidents reported as resulting in burns, 20 per cent, 
occurred while metal was being poured into molds; 17 
per cent, while molten metal was being carried in hand 
ladles; 11 per cent, because of stumbling and obstructed 
passageways; 10 per cent, while ladles were being filled 
at the cupola. ''Metal explosions," said the Commission, 
"caused 19 accidents; 18 were caused by metal running 
out of molds, and in 12 cases the ladle was defective and 
the hot metal broke through. The remaining accidents 
were due to various other causes: men carrying ladles 
bumped into each other, spilling the metal ; on tapping the 
cupola the sparks of metal burned men standing near; 
ladles and crucibles fell from crane hooks and tongs, 
splashing the contents in all directions; ladle trucks 
jumped the tracks, tipping over and spilling the 
metal, etc. In over 70 per cent, of these accidents de- 
scribed above the injured persons had one or both feet 
seriously burned. Forty- three cases resulted in injured 
eyes, one of which caused permanent impairment of 
sight; 19 cases resulted in burns to the legs, and 26 to 
other parts of the body." 

Probably no industry has so many serious accident 
hazards as coal mining. The statistics for 19 12, for ex- 
ample, as presented by the U. S. Bureau of Mines,^^ 
showed that of all the fatalities in coal mining, 89.79 P^^ 
cent, occurred underground. Of the total, 41.19 per cent, 
were caused by falls of roof (coal, rock, etc.), and 7.58 

15 Ibid., Shop Bulletin No. 4. 

" Coal Mine Accidents in the United States. 1896-1912, U. S. Bureau of 
Mines. 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 203 

per cent, additional by falls of coal other than roof coal. 
The next most important cause of mine accidents was 
mine cars and locomotives, responsible for 15.34 per cent. 
of the total, followed by gas explosions and burning gas, 
accountable for 6.95 per cent. Coal-dust explosions dur- 
ing the year accounted for only 1.27 per cent, of the ac- 
cidents from all causes, and explosions of coal dust and 
gas combined, but exclusive of coal-dust explosions 
separately considered, account for 4.53 per cent. *Trob- 
ably no industry," as Mr. Hoffman points out, "is so sub- 
ject to exceptional hazards as coal mining unless it be the 
manufacture of explosives, with regard to which trust- 
worthy American data are not available at the present 
time." " 

Nature of Injuries. — What appear to be representative 
statistics of the character of injuries resulting from in- 
dustrial accidents indicate that the majority of injuries 
occurring in factories and in building are lacerations, cuts 
and bruises. In factories between 5 and 10 per cent, 
of injuries are burns, nearly 5 per cent, are sprains and 
dislocations, and an even smaller proportion are frac- 
tures. This distribution of injuries according to their 
character in a typical manufacturing state is shown by 
the statistics collected by the New York State Depart- 
ment of Labor for the period April, 191 1, to March, 1913. 
The same statistics indicate that complete severance or 
loss of a member occurred in 3.1 per cent, of the acci- 
dents in manufacturing industries, and that death oc- 
curred in less than one-half of i per cent. Fatal ac- 

" U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Bulletin 157. Sup. cit., p. 106. 



204 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

cidents were most frequent in building and engineering 
and in mining and quarrying. The New York experience 
is summarized in the following table : 

NATURE OF INJURIES RESULTING FROM INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENTS 
IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK, APRIL, 1911, TO MARCH, 1913 ^s 

Per cent, of total injuries in a 

r- ' , 

Building Mining aii 

Nature OF Injury Factories and engi- and industries 

neering quarrying 
Lacerations, cuts, and bruises . . 68.7 64.1 66.7 67.4 

Burns 7.9 3.2 2.4 6.5 

Sprains or dislocations 4.1 5.0 4.0 4.4 

Fractures 2.5 3.9 6.1 2.9 

Suffocation, eflfect of heat, gas, etc. .2 .5 .4 .3 

Multiple or other injuries . . . . 16.6 23.3 20.4 18.5 

Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 

Fatalities (included above) 4 1.5 2.4 .7 

Complete severance or loss of mem- 
ber or part 3.1 1.0 1.8 2.5 

a The total accidents occurring during the period, classified by industrial 
groups, were as follows: Factories 102,683; Building and engineering 41,032; 
Mining and quarrying 1,667; total 145,382. 

The character of injuries resulting from industrial ac- 
cidents is perhaps better indicated in the following table 
which has been compiled from the New York State re- 
ports by Mr. Hoffman. It presents an analysis, accord- 
ing to the part of the body injured, of the New York 
experience already referred to, and is given on p. 205. 

Some interesting comparisons are suggested by these 
statistics. For example, it appears that in manu- 
facturing industries 10 per cent, of the accidents 
were injuries to the eyes, against "j."] per cent, in mining 
and quarrying and 3.2 per cent, in building and engineer- 
is compiled from Bulletins 48 to 55. Department of Labor, State of New 
York, published in compiled form in U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Bulletin 
157, sup. cit., p. 43. 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 



205 



INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENTS IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK, BY PARTS 
OF THE BODY INJURED, APRIL, 1911. TO MARCH, 1913 i» 

Accidents in 



Part Injured 



Eyes 

Other head injuries 

Trunk or internal 

Arms or hands 

Fingers 

Legs or feet . . 

Multiple or other 



Manufacturing 



Number 

10,312 

8,548 

5,402 

17,197 

38,400 

18,162 

4,662 



Total 102,683 



Per 

cent. 

10.0 

8.3 

5.3 

16.8 

37.4 

17.7 

4.5 

100.0 



Building and 
engineering 



Number 
1,331 
7,305 
2,602 
6,050 
8,259 

11,032 
4,453 

41,032 



Per 
cent. 

3.2 
17.8 

6.3 
14.8 
20.1 
26.9 
10.9 

100.0 



Mining and 
quarrying 

A 

Per 

Number cent. 



128 
194 
91 
197 
451 
435 
171 

1,667. 



7.7 
11.6 

5.5 
11.8 
27.0 
26.1 
10.3 

100.0 



ing. Nearly 40 per cent, of the accidents in manufactur- 
ing establishments were injuries to fingers, against 20 per 
cent, in building and engineering, while less than 20 per 
cent, of accidents in manufacturing establishments were 
injuries to legs and feet, against over 25 per cent, in the 
two other groups of industries. Because of the relative 
unimportance .of mining in New York State, the statistics 
are probably not thoroughly representative of that in- 
dustry, and reference may be made to the statistics col- 
lected by the U. S. Bureau of Mines. These data are not 
given in as much detail, from the standpoint of the nature 
of the injury, as the New York statistics, but they will 
suffice to indicate the general character of the accidents 
occurring in metal mines and in quarries in the United 
States as a whole. They are summarized in the following 
tabulation : 



" Ibid., p. 44. 



2o6 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

NUMBER AND PER CENT. OF MEN KILLED AND INJURED IN AND 

ABOUT METAL (AND MISCELLANEOUS MINERAL) MINES AND 

QUARRIES IN THE UNITED STATES, AND RATES PER 10,000 

EMPLOYED, BY GENERAL CHARACTER OF INJURY, 1912 2° 

Mines Quarries 

Total killed and injured 31,395 7,922 

Fatally injured : 

Number 661 183 

Per cent, of total 2.2 2.3 

Rate per 10,000 employed . . . . 39.06 17.22 

Seriously injured: 

Number 4,502 1,092 

Per cent, of total 14.3 13.8 

Rate per 10,000 employed . . . . 266.08 102.75 

Slightly injured: 

Number 26,232 6,647 

Per cent, of total 83.5 83.9 

Rate per 10,000 employed . . . . 1,550.36 625.45 

The foregoing statistics will be understood more clearly 
if definitions of terms are given. According to the bulle- 
tins from which the statistics are taken, a "serious" in- 
jury was considered to be one disabling a man from work 
for "20 days or more," and included broken arms and 
legs, the loss of an eye or eyes, and severe cuts and 
bruises; a "slight" injury was considered to be one in- 
volving loss of working time of "not less than i day nor 
more than 20 days" and included cuts, sprains, mashed 
fingers, bruises, slight burns, effect of powder smoke, 
etc.^^ 

"Slight" injuries, however, may become "serious" in- 
juries by becoming infected, as pointed out by the U. S. 
Bureau of Mines in presenting the foregoing statistics. 

20 Compiled from Metal Mine and Quarry Accidents in the United States, 
1912, U. S. Bureau of Mines. The rates per 10.000 employed were computed by 
Frederick L, Hoffman and published in U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Bulletin 
157, sup. cit., pp. 109-111. 

^^ Ibid., p. 108, quoting from Technical Paper 40, Bureau of Mines, 1913. 



IN ^AM ERIC AN INDUSTRIES 207 

iWith respect to this point, it is of interest to note the 
data obtained by the Wisconsin Industrial Commission in 
the course of a study of special causes of industrial ac- 
cidents.^^ As summarized in the Bureau of Labor Statis- 
tics bulletin on industrial accidents,^^ it was found that 
"a large number of minor accidents result in infection, 
which often can be prevented only by the earliest possible 
qualified treatment." This summary of the Wisconsin 
report continues : 

''Of the accidents reported to the Commission during 
the two years ending with September i, 191 3, 721, or 4.8 
per cent., resulted in infection of the injured member. 
The accidents themselves were, with few exceptions, 
trivial, and would have resulted in but a very few days' 
disability each if properly treated. On account of neglect 
or indifference, over 12,500 working days were lost, or 
an average of 17 days per case. In five cases the injuries 
terminated fatally, and in four others the injured mem- 
ber had to be amputated to save the patient's life. The 
Commission estimates that the compensation and medical 
aid in the 721 cases referred to under the present work- 
men's compensation law of Wisconsin would have cost 
employers about $40,000. They refer to the experience 
of several large Wisconsin manufacturing companies in 
preventing infection by the proper handling of all ac- 
cidents, no matter how slight, and the consequent practical 
elimination of serious results." 

Economic Significance of Industrial Accidents. — The 



" Industrial Commission of Wisconsin, Shop Bulletin No. S. 
22 U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Bulletin 157, p. 96. 



2o8 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

serious consequences to a wage-earner's family resulting 
from the removal by fatal accident or the maiming and 
incapacitating of its breadwinner hardly need to be 
pointed out. They are suggested by the statistics showing 
accident mortality rates according to age which have 
already been quoted, the large number of workers killed 
by accidents between the ages of 25 and 45 indicating the 
frequency with which fatal accidents occur in that period 
in which the ordinary worker has a family dependent 
upon him for support. Statistics published by the Bureau 
of Labor Statistics of Illinois emphasize the economic 
importance of industrial accidents because they show the 
conjugal condition of injured persons. The following 
table affords statistics for 3,283 persons fatally injured 
and 26,303 persons who were victims of non-fatal ac- 
cidents : 



CONJUGAL CONDITIONS AS FAR AS REPORTED OF PERSONS KILLED 

OR INJURED IN ILLINOIS INDUSTRIES, JULY 1. 1907. TO 

DECEMBER 31, 1912 2* 

Fatal accidents Non-fatal accidents 

/ ^ , , ^ , 

Industry Married Per Injuries to Per 

Persons persons cent. Persons married cent, 

killed killed married injured persons married 

Coalmining 1,112 665 59.8 4,225 2,357 55.0 

Contracting 81 50 61.7 623 Z77 60.5 

Manufacturing .. .. 540 349 64.6 13,221 7,470 56.5 
Railroading: 

Elevated 22 15 68.2 5 2 40.0 

Interurban .... 40 21 52.5 116 72 62.1 

Steam 1.301 846 65.0 5,581 3,516 63.0 

Street 44 28 63.6 304 187 61.5 

Underground .... 10 4 40.0 106 62 58.5 

Stone quarrying.. ..19 10 52.6 127 75 59.1 

Miscellaneous .... 114 60 52.6 1,995 1,102 55.2 

Total 3,283 2,048 62.4 26,303 15,220 57.8 

2«JfctU. p. 60. 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 209 

The Illinois statistics for the five years ending with 
19 1 2 showed that the 3,084 persons killed in industrial 
accidents had 4,872 children and dependents, and that the 
25,696 injured workers had 28,626 children and de- 
pendents. This, as has been remarked, "is unquestionably 
a considerable understatement of the facts." The eco- 
nomic significance of the industrial accident problem is 
also suggested by statistics showing the loss of time 
suffered by injured workers. Such data are afforded by 
several of the more intelligently prepared state reports. 
For example, two recent reports of the Ohio Industrial 
Commission"^ permit the following tabulation, the data 
for coal mining being given separately for purposes of 
comparison : 

DURATION OF DISABILITY IN INJURIES RECEIVED IN COAL MINES, 
AND IN ALL INDUSTRIES, IN OHIO. IN 1914 

Coal mining All industries 

Classified Duration ^ ^ ^ , ^ ^ 

Number Per cent. Number Per cent. 

Under 1 week 482 24.7 38.666 54.2 

1 and under 2 weeks . , .. 318 16.3 11,267 15.8 

2 and under 3 weeks.. .. 308 15.8 7,699 10.8 

3 and under 4 weeks.. .. 244 12.5 4,406 6.2 

4 and under 13 weeks. .. 510 26.1 8,183 11.4 
13 weeks and over .... 90 4.6 1,122 1.6 
Not reported 44 a 

Total 1,952 100.0 71,387 100.0 

a Less than one-tenth of 1 per cent. 

From the foregoing table it appears that 45.8 per cent, 
of the accidents in all industries resulted in disability last- 
ing one week or longer, 30 per cent, in disability lasting 
two weeks or longer, and 13 per cent, in disability lasting- 
four weeks or longer. The severity of accidents in coal 

^ Industrial Commission of Ohio, Department of Investigation and Statistics, 
Reports Nos. 18 and 19, 1916 (for 1914), Fred C. Croxton, Chief Statistician. 



2IO CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

mines is indicated to be considerably greatei^ than that 
in other industries, since 30.7 per cent, of the coal mine 
accidents resulted in disability lasting four weeks or 
longer. The experience of the Massachusetts Industrial 
Accident Board affords similar data for a large Eastern 
manufacturing State. Its experience for the year ending 
June 30, 19 1 3, showed that of the 89,694 non- fatal acci- 
dents, 68,586, or 76.5 per cent., were reported as injuries 
which incapacitated the employee for two weeks or less. 
About 41 per cent of the non- fatal accidents incapacitated 
the employee for only one day. The statistics for 19 13 
are presented below : 

DURATION OF DISABILITY CAUSED BY NON-FATAL INJURIES 
ACCORDING TO EXPERIENCE UNDER THE WORKMEN'S COM- 
PENSATION LAW OF MASSACHUSETTS FOR YEAR 
ENDING JUNE 30, 1913 ^8 

Persons injured 

Duration of Disability ^ ^ ^ 

Number Per cent. 

2 weeks and under a 68,586 76.5 

2 to 4 weeks 10,568 11.8 

4 to 8 weeks 6,638 7.4 

8 to 13 weeks 2,355 2.6 

13 to 26 weeks 1,275 1.4 

Over 26 weeks 272 .3 

Total 89,694 100.0 

a Of the accidents causing disability of less than two weeks, 36,901, or 41 per 
cent, of the non-fatal accidents, caused a disability duration of one day or less. 

Translated into terms of average days lost per injured 
person, the above figures indicate that the average em- 
ployee who was incapacitated by industrial accident lost 
12.9 days. Stated in another form, the statistics showed 
that 3,855 wage-workers in Massachusetts were con- 

26 First annual report of the Massachusetts Industrial Accident Board. The 
data from this source are summarized in U. S. Bureau of Labor Bulletin 157, 

sup. cit., pp. 48-57, 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 211 

stantly incapacitated on account of industrial accidents 
during the year ending June 30, 19 13. The Massachu- 
setts Accident Board estimated that the wage loss oc- 
casioned by industrial accidents in 19 13 was $2,965,225, 
or about $10,000 for each working day. When the fact 
that the predominating industries in Massachusetts are 
textiles and boots and shoes, both of which are com- 
paratively free from industrial accidents, is taken into 
consideration, it is quite apparent that these statistics are 
hardly typical for the principal industrial States. 

The Massachusetts statistics are especially illuminating, 
however, because they furnish data on the wages of those 
who were fatally injured. These wage statistics plainly 
showed that the large majority of fatally injured workers 
were persons earning wages barely sufficient for main- 
taining families. Loss of wages meant serious conse- 
quences to their dependents unless the latter were pro- 
vided with other means of support. According to the 
statistics of classified weekly wages of the 474 persons 
fatally injured during the year ending June 30, 19 13, 5.7 
per cent, earned $8 or less, 60.8 per cent, earned from $8 
to $15, 21.5 per cent, earned from $15 to $20, and only 12 
per cent, earned over $20. Similar data are afforded by 
the CaHfornia Industrial Accident Commission for fatally 
injured persons. Of 678 fatally injured persons during 
the year ending June 30, 191 5, about 62 per cent, were 
receiving between $10 and $19 per week, and over 80 
per cent, were receiving $30 or less a week. Nearly 40 
per cent, were married men. Of the 1,292 permanently 
injured persons during this period, more than 55 per cent. 



212 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

were receiving between $io and $19 per week, and about 
50 per cent, were married men. The loss of time oc- 
casioned by the 60,241 accidents which resulted in only 
temporary disability amounted to 695,394 days, or an 
average for all cases where disability lasted through the 
day of 16.8 days, representing a money loss in wages of 
about $2,000,000. It is interesting to note that against 
this wage loss is set the sum of only $605,743 which em- 
ployers and insurance companies paid in compensation, 
or a total of $1,220,449, i^ medical benefits be included. 

American statistics of accident mortality in industrial 
occupations are very similar, so far as occupational differ- 
ences are concerned, to European statistics for similar 
occupations. There is no longer any doubt that the 
danger from maiming or fatal accidents is a very real 
condition of labor and a very marked characteristic of 
modern industry. In certain important occupations it is a 
fact which the wage-earner and his family must face, 
with what solace fatalistic creeds may afford them, until 
accident prevention becomes thoroughly effective. Finan- 
cial compensation is a poor recompense for disabling in- 
jury or for the family's loss of a breadwinner; it merely 
affords a pitiful relief. Its greatest value lies in the in- 
centive which some employers apparently need to realize 
the uneconomical practise of disregarding the value of 
human efficiency and life. 

HAZARDS FROM HARMFUL SUBSTANCES 

Occupational health hazards resulting from work in the 
so-called "harmful substances" have been shown in several 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 213 

important Federal and State investigations, as well as in 
medical literature, to be serious hazards to the workers 
in those conditions. These substances have been classified 
as metals, dusts, gases, vapors and fumes. It is im- 
portant to point out, however, that while authoritative in- 
vestigations have shown that nearly every line of modern 
manufacture exposes the worker to the dangers of in- 
dustrial poisoning, the number of workers who suffer 
from diseases caused by harmful substances is relatively 
small when compared with workers who are incapacitated 
or killed by industrial accidents or by insanitary con- 
ditions in places of work, by insanitary conditions of 
living, or by earnings inadequate to provide proper food 
and healthful home and community environment. It is 
quite probable that, with the means to build up the 
worker's resistence to disease-causing conditions in the 
substances in which he works, the hazard arising from 
such conditions would be greatly lessened. It is also quite 
certain that practicable safeguards can be made against 
deleterious results from harmful substances. The "oc- 
cupational disease" hazard is so intricately involved in 
other conditions that it is difficult to ascribe to each set of 
conditions its relative potency in bringing about harmful 
effects upon the worker. 

So much emphasis has been given to industrial poisons 
in recent literature that it is impracticable here to present 
a summary of what has been described.^^ Phosphorus, 
lead, mercury, analin, and arsenic poisonings are among 
the more familiar examples. The New York Depart- 

»' See Chapter VIII., The Wage-Earner's Health. 



214 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

ment of Labor, during the two years ending August, 191 3, 
had 284 cases of industrial diseases reported to it. Of 
this number 239, or nearly 85 per cent., were caused by 
lead poisoning; 8, or about 3 per cent., were caused by 
brass, mercury, phosphorus, and wood alcohol poisoning ; 
5, or about 2 per cent., contracted anthrax ; 30, or about 
10 per cent., were subjected to caisson disease when work- 
ing in shafts and tunnels. Of the lead poisonings about 
one-fourth occurred among workers in the manufacture 
of electric batteries and in the painting of vehicles, and 
nearly a half in house painting. This brief reference 
from two years' experience in a single State affords an 
idea of the character and of the extent of industrial 
poisoning. The recent investigation by the United States 
Bureau of Mines, undertaken in cooperation with the 
Federal Public Health Service, of siHcosis, or "miner's 
consumption," in metal mines in the Joplin, Missouri, dis- 
trict, furnishes an illuminating example of the hazards 
from rock dust as well as other harmful conditions of 
work in that industry. "Miner's consumption," declared 
the report of this investigation, is a matter "of deep pub- 
lic concern" for the reason "that the inhalation of sharp 
particles of dust injures the mucous membrane of the 
lungs and in this way lessens the resistence of the lungs 
to pathologic germs, especially the bacilli of pulmonary 
tuberculosis." The report concluded that the death rate 
from pulmonary diseases is unusually high among the 
Joplin miners; that the prime factor is the rock dust in 
the mines, tho poor housing, exposure, alcoholism, the 
use of common drinking receptacles and overwork are 



IN "AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 21s 

contributory causes; that the rock dust is harmful be- 
cause the miner is exposed to it practically during his 
entire shift, and because of the peculiarly sharp character 
of the particles ; that the rock dust can be abated almost 
completely by observing certain precautions; and that 
"there are certain abuses connected with the piece system 
of work that demand attention and correction as far as 
practicable." 

The tuberculosis rate has been found to be considerably 
higher than the average for all occupations among glass 
and stone workers and among grinders and polishers in 
metal working plants, and suggests the harmful effect 
of working in certain substances.^^ In brass foundries, 
for example, the dense clouds of deflagrated zinc arising 
from the molten metal have injurious effects. In glass 
factories, it has been observed that the glass dust is a 
serious danger to health. For purpose of illustration, 
a description afforded by the Federal Woman and Child 
Wage-Earners' report, as condensed in the Bureau of 
Labor Statistics recent summary, may be referred to.^^ 
In the glass bottle factories investigated, the glass dust 
comes partly from the glass on the floor, says the sum- 
mary, but far more from what is known as ''blow-over," 
the name given to those gossamer-like flakes of filmy 
glass that are usually found floating in the air of a bottle 
house. When a bottle has been blown into form in a 
mold it is necessary to detach the blowpipe without in- 
juring the neck of the bottle. To do this the glass be- 

28 See statistics of mortality according to occupation in Chapter VIII., The 
Wage-Earner's Health. 

" Bulletin of the U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, No. 175, p. 121. 



2i6 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

tween the top of the mold and the butt of the blowpipe is 
blown into a thin bubble which can be easily broken. This 
can be done so as to cause practically no blow-over, but 
it is "quicker and easier to blow hard enough to inflate 
and burst this portion of the glass by internal air pressure. 
When this is done the bubble explodes with a popping 
noise and its walls fly into the air, often into the mold- 
boy's face, and the light particles of glass float in the 
air currents of the room." 

The degree to which blow-over is present differs 
greatly with the speed and carefulness of the blowers. 
It is by no means an inevitable feature ; in some factories 
such precautions were taken that it was a negligible evil, 
while in others it constituted a serious menace. The re- 
port says : 

"In some factories at times the air is so full of this float- 
ing glass that the hair is whitened by merely passing 
through the room. It sticks to the perspiration on the 
faces and arms of the boys and men, and becomes a 
source of considerable irritation. Getting into the eyes, 
it becomes especially troublesome." ^" 

This dust is said to be the cause of much temporary 
skin and eye irritation ; just how serious these effects are 
has not been determined. It is a truism, however, that the 
inhalation of irritating dust predisposes to diseases of the 
respiratory passages, and it is known that its presence in 
considerable quantities in workrooms is always accom- 
panied by a high death rate, especially from consump- 
tion.^^ 

'0 Woman and Child Wage-Earners' Report, Vol, III., Glass Industry, p. 66. 
Si Ibid., p. 135. 



'IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 217 

INSANITARY CONDITIONS IN PLACES OF WORK 

The wage- worker is frequently subjected to hazards 
Other than those of industrial accidents or of working in 
''harmful substances" ; unhealthful conditions, commonly 
described as insanitary/^ also constitute a menace to his 
health. While there has been undoubted improvement in 
the sanitary conditions in factories and other places of 
work in recent years, the average American industrial 
establishment is by no means free from conditions which, 
according to present standards and knowledge, are dis- 
tinctly insanitary. It is safe to say that in nearly every 
plant where such conditions exist, comparatively little 
outlay of money and a little intelligent effort could greatly 
improve and, in many cases, remove them. The results 
in increased efficiency have often been seen where such 
outlay and effort have been made. 

The regular reports of factory inspectors in many 
States and of special investigations and surveys of san- 
itary conditions in manufacturing establishments furnish 
a large amount of data on this condition of labor. It is 
obviously impossible to construct any general statement 
of what the sanitary status of American industrial estab- 
lishments is, or to summarize the literature on the sub- 
ject in a concise manner. A brief mention of some of the 
more important insanitary conditions, with a few illustra- 
tions, must suffice to suggest what these conditions are 
and how far they are prevalent. 

Among the principal insanitary conditions which have 

32 Harmful substances, as well as long hours, properly come within the defini- 
tion of "insanitary" conditions, but for purposes of clearness they have been 
disjcust under separate headings in this chapter. 



2i8 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

been noted are those due to bad ventilation, such as ex- 
cessive heat or cold; overcrowding; excessive or de- 
fective light or lack of light, and excessive noise and 
rhythm from machinery, etc., which cause strains of 
nerves and special senses; conditions which cause im- 
proper postures of the worker; uncleanly conditions, 
which are not only distasteful to the worker, but 
which are also favorabk to the spread of infectious 
diseases. 

Recent reports indicate that a very large proportion of 
the industrial establishments in this country are not free 
from unhygienic conditions. The Federal report on 
woman and child wage-earners stated that in cotton 
mills,^^ for example, the light in the weaving-rooms only 
was good. Ventilation was apt to be poor. The tempera- 
ture of the mills was often found to be high, and in certain 
rooms the humidity was excessive. In the Southern mills 
over 80 per cent, of the toilets were unclean, and in 
over 50 per cent., in both sections, there was no reason- 
able privacy of approach. Wash rooms and dress- 
ing rooms were rare. This survey was made in 1907- 
1908, and it is proper to state that in many mills marked 
improvements have been made. The more recent report, 
however, of the New York Factory Investigating Com- 
mission of its extensive examination of establishments in 
the State of New York found "deplorable" conditions in 
a large number of factories and that satisfactory con- 
ditions were found in a relatively small proportion of the 

'^ See Summary of the Report on Condition of Woman and Child Wage- 
Earners in the United States (Bulletin 175 of the U. S. Bureau of Labor Statis- 
tics, p. 66), based on Vol. I. of the report. 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 219 

establishments.^^ "In many of the industrial estab- 
lishments in the state," the report says, *'the conditions 
of work have been found to be excellent, the management 
giving proper regard to the health and comfort of the 
employees, and the organization being model in all re- 
spects. Everything in reason has been done for the 
v/orkers, and a high standard of efficiency has been 
maintained." . . . 

"Unfortunately, such model establishments and such 
enlightened employers are in the minority, as by far the 
greater number of employers have not yet awakened to 
the importance of improving conditions of labor. Inves- 
tigations in a great number of factories throughout the 
State have revealed much that is deplorable. In the pro- 
duction of commodities, great economy must needs be 
practised as a matter of course. But there is a tendency 
on the part of many employers to economize not only in 
matters of legitimate expense, but also in space, light, air 
and certain other safeguards to the health and lives of 
the workers. Such false economy inevitably injures the 
employer and imperils the health and lives of his em- 
ployees. Workers exercise but little control, either indi- 
vidually or collectively, over conditions of labor in fac- 
tories. The employer, alone, arranges all working con- 
ditions and regulates them according to his will." 

**New York Factory Investigating Commission; Second Report, 1913, Vol. 
II., Report of Dr. George M. Price, Director of Investigation, p. 416. See 
Chapter VIII., The Wage-Earner's Health. 



220 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

PROFIT-SHARING AND BONUS PLANS 

One of the oldest methods by which employers have 
endeavored to secure the interest of their employees in 
their establishments has been profit-sharing. As there is 
confusion as to the exact meaning of the term, it may be 
well to define it. The International Cooperative Con- 
gress, held in Paris, France, 1889, defined profit-sharing 
as "an agreement freely entered into, by which the em- 
ployees receive a share, fixt in advance, of the profit." 
This is a very close definition, and it is probable that there 
are very few systems in this country which would wholly 
comply with the definition. The essential feature, how- 
ever, of any profit-sharing scheme is that the amount to 
be distributed shall depend upon the net profits of the 
enterprise or upon the amount of dividends paid to stock- 
holders, and that the proportion of profit to be distributed 
shall be definitely determined in advance. 

The Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, however, in a 
recent study ^^ limits the principle of true profit-sharing to 
those firms in which the benefits of the plan are extended 
to at least one- third of the total employed, including em- 
ployees in occupations other than executive in character, 
and under which the methods of determining individual 
shares are not known in a general way to the participating 
employee. It then classifies as limited profit-sharing those 
plans in which the benefits are limited to less than one- 
third of the total employed, excluding employees other 
than executive or clerical. 

S3 Bulletin No. 208, "Profit-Sharing in the United States," by Boris Emraet. 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 221 

As defined above, in the narrow sense profit-sharing 
was found by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the in- 
vestigation referred to in practise in the United States by 
approximately sixty firms, as follows : 

The number of profit-sharing plans in which less than 
one-third of the employees of any firm are included prob- 
ably exceeds the number of establishments classified as 
having profit-sharing plans in the true sense of that term ; 
the number of bonus plans is probably even larger than 
the number of profit-sharing plans. 

It is probably fairly well accepted tho not established 
definitely by court decisions ^^ that employees under any 
one of these plans have no legal claims upon the profits 
to be made available for distribution. The bulletin of the 
Bureau of Labor Statistics in question refers to several 
cases in the justice courts of the State of Michigan in 
which the defendants contend that profit-sharing moneys 
are mere gratuities from the employer. 

The amount of the divisible profits is distributed either 
as a specific proportion of the net profits, or of the divi- 
dends to stockholders, or as a rate of dividend on the 
earnings of the employees. This rate is usually less than 
the rate of dividend paid on capital to the stockholders. 
Eligibility for participation by the employees is generally 
dependent upon length of service with the enterprise. 
This minimum of continuous service varies from three 
months to three years ; but the minimum required in more 

2^ The New York Court of Appeals, which is the highest court in that State, 
has denied the right of an employee to the amount of an accrued pension upon 
dismissal before reaching the specified age and service limit. (McNevin v. Sol- 
vay Process Company, 32 App. Div., 610; affirming 166 N. Y., 530). 



222 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

than one-half of the plans investigated by the Bureau of 
Labor Statistics was one year or less. 

In all of the plans the employer retains absolute right 
of hiring and discharging employees, and discharge and 
leaving employment act automatically to forfeit the share 
of profits of the employee. The employer retains the 
amount forfeited. The profits are generally paid in cash. 

According to the investigation of the Bureau of Labor 
Statistics already referred to, the following facts were 
developed as to the profit-sharing plans investigated : Of 
the 56 plans, 11 were established in 1915; 7 in 1914; 4 in 
each of the years 1901, 1906, 1909, 191 1, 1912, and 1913; 
3 in 1910; 2 in each of the years 1886 and 1899; and i 
in each of the years 1887, 1889, 1900, 1902, 1904 and 
1907. Over six-tenths were located in Massachusetts, 
New York, and Ohio, 13 being located in Massachusetts. 
Forty-five per cent., or 25, were in manufacturing estab- 
lishments; 21 per cent., or 12, in mercantile institutions; 
14 per cent., or 8, in banking houses, and 7 per cent., or 
4, in public utilities. As to size, of the 38 establishments 
reporting the number of employees, 2i7 P^i* cent., or the 
largest proportion, were classed as establishments having 
100 and under 300 employees ; and 34 per cent, employed 
under 100 employees. 

Under almost one-third of the plans the profit-sharing 
dividend of the regular earnings of the participating em- 
ployees was less than 6 per cent. ; under slightly over one- 
third of the plans the dividend varied from 6 to under 10 
per cent. ; under the remaining third of the establishments 
the dividend amounted to 10 per cent, and over. As all 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 223 

employees do not participate in the plans, the cost to the 
employer in proportion to the earnings would be generally 
less than indicated by the rate of dividend on earnings 
of participating employees. 

When applied in an establishment the plans appeared 
to reach a comparatively large proportion of employees 
other than the higher executive, clerical and sales oc- 
cupations, 83 per cent, of the employees being in occupa- 
tions other than these latter. 

Limited profit-sharing plans, that is, plans under which 
less than one-third of the employees of an establishment 
are eligible for benefits, were studied by the Bureau. 
Those benefited are usually the higher paid employees in 
charge of the operation of the business, the executive, ad- 
ministrative, and supervisory employees. The determina- 
tion of the profit-sharing fund, conditions of eligibility, 
basis for computing individual shares, conditions of for- 
feiture, etc., are quite similar to those in profit-sharing 
plans more strictly defined. 

None of these plans, the Bureau found, go back prior 
to 1900; the establishments were found most generally 
located in the North Atlantic States ; they were most com- 
mon in manufacturing enterprises, and more generally 
among the smaller establishments than the larger ones. 
Under these limited plans the benefits accruing to the par- 
ticipants are usually larger than under the true profit- 
sharing plan, the relative proportion of the profits avail- 
able for distribution being considerably larger and the 
number of employees benefited considerably smaller than 
under the other plans described. It appears that 74 per 



224 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

cent, of the employees participating in the limited profit- 
sharing plans belong to the executive, clerical and sales 
occupations, only 26 per cent, were in that group which 
includes the mechanical occupations. 

Closely related to profit-sharing are bonus plans under 
which the divisible fund depends upon any or one of 
several factors : ( i ) Price for which the commodity man- 
ufactured is disposed of (sliding scale wage) ; (2) gross 
receipts or gross profits; (3) probable profits of the 
bonus; (4) earnings and length of service; (5) length 
of service and thrift as shown by ownership of stock in 
the company or maintenance of a savings account by the 
participant; (6) savings of prospective participants as 
shown by a stock subscription or ownership or a savings 
account; and (7) amount of savings collectively affected 
for the enterprise. 

The benefits accruing from such bonuses are in the 
nature of periodic wage increases. The benefit is usually 
in the form of a return to the employee of a percentage on 
earnings, the percentage varying with the length of 
service. The bonus is in the nature of a gift, and bears no 
relation to the profits realized but varies with the prosper- 
ity of the business as a rule. In the Ford automobile 
plants the bonus is distributed in the form of a guaran- 
teed minimum wage per day, rated according to skill, the 
gross amount dependent upon the profits estimated to ac- 
crue within the year, one-half of such profits being dis- 
tributed in the form of the minimum wage. Frequently 
the condition for a certain length of service is coupled 
with a compulsion to subscribe for a specified amount of 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 225 

stock of the company ; In other plans it depends upon the 
skill of the employee as shown by his rate of wages, while 
in others the bonus depends upon the nature of the work 
performed by the employee and the merit of the service 
rendered in the estimation of the employer. In stock sub- 
scription plans the additional remuneration depends upon 
the amount of subscriptions per stock, and in the so-called 
cash bonus plan based upon length of service, it depends 
upon the earnings of the employee in relation to his length 
of service. There are also plans in which the dividend 
on earnings of the employees is dependent upon the sav- 
ings collectively effected in a department over and above 
a standard fixt in advance. 

Summing up the results of a special study for the Na- 
tional Civic Federation, it w^as stated that of the 200 
plans that were analyzed a great many "have been aban- 
doned as acknowledged failures." The relatively large 
proportion of "dubious" results, however, ought not to 
lead one to the conclusion that profit-sharing is "worth- 
less," because other plans of the same kind, from the 
standpoint of special local conditions, or by contrast with 
some previous order of things, "no doubt show a net 
improvement in the welfare of the employees affected 
and the morale of the plants." ^"^ 

The views of a considerable number of labor leaders 
on the question of profit-sharing were sought and ob- 
tained. All of these informants, without exception, voiced 
their emphatic opposition to the principle as well as to its 

"Profit-Sharing by American Employers, New York City (1916), p, 6. Re- 
viewed in Monthly Review of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Washington, 
1916, Vol. II., No. 6 (June), 46-48. 



226 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

application, on the grounds that such plans invariably re- 
sult in discouraging collective bargaining, have a tendency 
to hinder the development of labor organizations, and in 
their actual application are confined to employees of 
higher grades, excluding from their benefits the rank and 
file of the workers. The latter assertion, the report states, 
"is borne out by the statistics of many of these experi- 
ments." ^^ 

With reference to the attitude of employers the report 
states that a large number of the companies whose plans 
were analyzed in the body of the report, stated that they 
''considered profit-sharing a success" and that others 
"presumably hold the same view from the fact that they 
continue the experiments from year to year." Employers 
having profitrsharing plans in operation think that the 
application of the principle "promotes more continuous 
service, reduces the cost of production, secures more regu- 
lar attendance at work, builds up confidence, and creates 
a spirit of cooperation." ^^ 

But while most of the objections to profit-sharing come 
from the side of organized labor, some employers who 
have had experience on the subject "are by no means a 
unit as to its practical value." Some of these employers 
express disappointment that their efforts were not appre- 
ciated by their employees, that the latter "seemed to pre- 
fer their total earnings in fixt wages, that they were sus- 
picious of their employers' motives, that they insisted 
upon joining unions and presenting demands in spite of 

^^Idem., pp. 12, 13. * 

^^Idem.. p. 10. 



IN 'AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 227 

the companies' effort to give them a share in the extra 
gains of the business." ^® 

Employers' Welfare Work 
The institution of welfare work, special methods for 
the payment of wages, such as bonus and premium sys- 
tems, and sharing of profits with the employees by the 
enterprise, is a recognition by employers that careful and 
tactful consideration must be given to the wage-earner 
as a human being to secure his loyalty and attachment to 
the work of his employer. The immediate ends sought 
by employers are various; among them may be men- 
tioned the desire to secure greater steadiness of employ- 
ment by preventing the waste of frequent hiring and dis- 
charging of men; freedom from strikes and lockouts ; and 
discouragement of organization among employees, with 
the consequent interference of the employees in the man- 
agement of the enterprise. The general result achieved 
is thought to be greater production at less cost. Un- 
doubtedly, also, the humanitarian instinct has been very 
prominent as a motive in the inauguration of various 
kinds of welfare schemes. 

It may be said that organized labor without exception 
is opposed to welfare work of every kind. It is charged 
that it leads to paternalism and autocracy on the part of 
the employers; that the work as a whole is done at the 
expense of wages, and that it results in suppressing 
initiative on the part of the employee. Welfare work is 
declared to be one of the instrumentalities by which the 

*^Idem., p. 11. 



228 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

progress of industrial democracy is stayed. Welfare 
work may be defined as provision by the employer for the 
comfort of the employee, mental and physical, recreation 
in the interest of his health and hygiene and general well- 
being over and above what is legally demanded. It con- 
sists in improvement of working conditions of the em- 
ployee above the standard required by law. Most of the 
welfare work is conducted by employers with the larger 
labor forces and by those generally engaged in enter- 
prises of a more permanent character. The kind of wel- 
fare w^ork carried on naturally differs from the character 
of the employing force in any instance; it is different for 
employees in department stores and for miners or rail- 
road hands. 

Welfare work takes on a multiplicity of forms. Among 
the various kinds may be mentioned rest and recreation 
rooms, and cloak and locker rooms — most common in 
department stores and large office establishments; also 
lunch rooms and restaurants; club rooms or houses; 
emergency or first-aid rooms, bath and wash rooms and 
hospital arrangements — institutions most common at 
mines and for the rougher occupations in general; pro- 
vision of libraries or reading-rooms; gymnasium, and 
recreation grounds ; social gatherings, outings, music and 
lectures; work among families of employees, such as 
maintaining kindergartens, playgrounds, clinic or visiting 
nurse service ; amusements, etc. ; institution of classes in 
trade or other education, particularly the organization of 
classes for the instruction of foreigners in English; in- 
stitution of benefit associations for the relief of persons 



IN ^AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 229 

injured by accident or incapacitated by sickness; the 
establishment of pension funds for the disabled and 
superannuated; organization of group insurance, en- 
couragement of thrift, and provision of relief from 
monotonous and fatiguing occupations. Of late there has 
developed a system of physical examination of employees 
to ascertain their fitness for any occupation for which 
they apply ; this physical examination is usually conducted 
from time to time in order to maintain the health of the 
employee. There has been considerable development in 
granting of vacation and sick leave; particularly is this 
true in office and clerical work. 

The administration of the welfare work is probably 
most generally in the hands of the employers, altho many 
of them carry the work on through a special welfare sec- 
retary, a rather recent institution. 

In many instances a democratic form of organization 
is maintained by representation of the employees on 
managing committees. This is particularly so in the case 
of the organization of safety work in mines and in the 
iron and steel industry. Frequently outside agencies co- 
operate in the organization of the work. The Y. M. C. A. 
maintains an extended cooperation with the Pennsylvania 
Railroad Company, the usual Y. M. C. A. equipment — 
gymnasium, reading-rooms, etc. — being maintained at 
some of the principal terminals of that road. Frequently 
the work is carried on in cooperation with social settle- 
ment organizations, boards of education, and charitable 
organizations. 

A mere list of all employers in the United States who 



230 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

are known to conduct welfare work of varying amount 
would probably fill a small volume of fifty or more pages. 
Bulletin 123 of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (Em- 
ployers' Welfare Work, Washington, 1913) describes 
the welfare work of fifty-one large employers of labor; 
but it would be quite safe to say a list of from 1,500 to 
2,000 concerns could be compiled for the United States 
of employers engaged in welfare work. Mr. Tollman in 
his work on social engineering (1909) describes in some 
detail the welfare work of establishments employing over 
a million and a half workers. One of the best illustra- 
tions of welfare work as conducted by some of the larger 
employers of labor is afforded by the system which has 
been put into operation by the United States Steel Cor- 
poration. 

The United States Steel Corporation maintains at New 
York a separate Bureau of Safety, Relief, Sanitation 
and Welfare, organized in 19 10." It is in charge of a 
manager whose entire time is spent on this work. The 
Bureau acts as a central clearing-house of information 
for the subsidiary companies of the corporation and as 
the administrative body for the Committee of Safety and 
of the Committee on Sanitation, the duty of which is the 
organization of local committees of safety at the various 
plants of the corporation. On these committees em- 
ployees are represented. Their work is educational — the 
study of efficient safeguards, methods of installation, etc. 
At its New York office the Bureau maintains a museum 



" U. S. Steel Corporation, Bureau of Safety, Relief, Sanitation and Welfare. 
Bulletin No. 4, November, 1913, New York City. 



IN 'AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 231 

of safety and files pictures of the welfare work of the 
corporation. 

The problem first given attention by the sanitation 
committee was the purification of the drinking water 
supply at the different subsidiary companies. An analysis 
was made of the water and impure sources were aban- 
doned and new supplies obtained. These analyses are 
now made twice a year and oftener as occasion may re- 
quire. The common drinking-cup is being replaced with 
sanitary drinking fountains, 482 such fountains having 
been installed in 19 12. The common or roller towel has 
gradually been abandoned. Standard specifications are 
prepared and enforced for various types of sanitary 
equipment. Garbage and refuse disposal is being sys- 
tematized at the various mining towns of the H. C. Frick 
Coke Company and the National Mining Company, sub- 
sidiaries of the corporation in the bituminous coal region. 
Also, at the mining towns bath and change houses are 
being installed, usually located a short distance from the 
mouth of the shaft, and provided with showers, lockers, 
etc. 

By some of the companies recreation and club houses 
have been established. The baseball ground is said to 
have been one of the potent means of Americanizing the 
foreign miner. It has been a means of social contact be- 
tween the scattered mining towns of the bituminous coal 
and coke region of western Pennsylvania. Also instru- 
mental in the work of Americanization has been the play- 
ground. 

A number of subsidiary companies are providing res- 



232 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

taurants at the works for the benefit of their employees. 
The mill restaurant of the American Sheet and Tin Plate 
Company, at Gary, Indiana, cost $7,300. The restaurant 
is not leased, and no rental is charged. Permission to 
continue business is dependent upon proper conduct of 
the restaurant, the serving of wholesome food, and the 
keeping of the premises in a sanitary condition. The price 
of a regular noonday meal is twenty-five cents. 

The H. C. Frick Coke Company offer annually to its 
employees prizes for the best vegetable and flower garden. 
In 1913 the company awarded 113 first prizes throughout 
its different mining towns, 113 second prizes, and 79 third 
prizes. The value of each vegetable garden was esti- 
mated at $27.50. The Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad 
Company, another subsidiary of the steel corporation, re- 
ports that each season more gardens are being planted 
by its employees. In 19 13 over 50 per cent, more were 
planted than in 1912. 

Another feature of the welfare work of the steel cor- 
poration is the institution of the visiting nurse service. 
District or visiting nurses are employed by the mining 
companies, usually under the direction of a local com- 
pany physician or plant manager, altho in some cases they 
are under the city visiting nurse association. Their duties 
are to visit homes of employees in times of sickness and 
to instruct in the care and feeding of infants. They ex- 
plain the proper preparation of food, advise in the matter 
of economical purchasing, and teach the value and neces- 
sity of cleanliness and the benefits of fresh air and stui- 
shine. 



IN 'AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 233 

Children's playgrounds are being installed by the cor- 
poration on unused land near the plant or mine of the 
subsidiary company and equipped and maintained at cor- 
poration expense. Young women in the neighborhood 
are said to give their services voluntarily toward this 
work. Playgrounds are not restricted to the use of chil- 
dren of the employing company, but are open to the com- 
munity. A total of loi children's playgrounds had been 
provided by the subsidiary companies in 1913; the total 
average daily attendance was reported as 8,688 during 
the summer months. 

An organized housing movement is being conducted by 
the corporation through its different subsidiaries. Whole 
towns have been laid out, such as Gary, Indiana, and 
Morgan Park at Duluth, Minnesota, to provide housing 
facilities for employees. In the bituminous coal region 
the H. C. Frick Coke Company and the National Mining 
Company have extensively gone into the matter of main- 
taining sanitary conditions in their mining towns, keeping 
their houses well painted and fences and gardens in trim. 

Labor and Scientific Management 

Scientific management is that new form of industrial 
management to which are being applied the principles, or 
laws, which underlie efficiency of human effort, and which 
affect the arrangements of material factors essential to 
an industrial enterprise. It is still in a stage of dis- 
covery and experimentation. It was developed by 
a group of engineers, originating with Frederick W. 
Taylor of Philadelphia. As early as 1832, however. 



234 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

Charles Babbage, a mathematician, published his 
"Economy of Manufacturing" (London), setting forth 
the controlling principles of manufacturing as he saw 
them. Henry R. Towne of Yale and Towne Manufac- 
turing Company, before the American Society of 
Mechanical Engineers, in 1886, developed the idea of 
'The Engineer as Economist," and described the system 
which he termed "Gain Sharing," an application of profit- 
sharing to departments of an industry instead of to the 
business as a whole. During this period Taylor, the 
father of the system, was developing his method of re- 
ducing costs of production along somewhat different lines. 
He termed his system the "piece-rate system." This con- 
sists in a different rate of pay for the same piece of work, 
the rate being low for the ordinary rate of production and 
high for production according to a fixt standard. This 
standard is to be ascertained by means of analysis of a 
job into its constituent parts through a study of the time 
taken to perform it by an average workman. All of the 
motions of the worker in performing the task are timed; 
the motions are simplified and corrected at the same time 
by the engineer, who analyzes and sets the task to be per- 
formed. Time study determines the order and sequence 
for the performance of a task, and ascertains the time for 
its proper execution. 

It is time and motion study, in fact, which is the es- 
sential characteristic of all phases of scientific manage- 
ent. Time and motion study, in the words of Mr. Taylor, 
is an "accurate scientific method by which the great mass 
of laws governing the easiest and most productive move- 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 235 

ments of man are investigated. These laws constitute a 
great code which, for the first time in industry, com- 
pletely controls the acts of the management as well as 
those of the workman." ^^ The different representatives 
of the scientific management cult accept this method of 
ascertaining the standard task to be performed, altho 
they differ somewhat as to the method of fixing the rate 
of payment. H. L. Gantt, for instance, adopts not a piece- 
rate method of payment as does Mr. Taylor, but a time- 
rate method. His bonus plan guarantees the worker a 
standard day's wage and then adds a premium for the ac- 
complishment of a standard of quantity or quality fixt 
in advance by a time and motion study. Harrington 
Emerson has modified the Gantt bonus plan by fixing a 
certain percentage of accomplishment of a standard task 
as the basis for payment for the ordinary day's wages. 
The operator who attains to 6y per cent, or less gets the 
standard day's wages, and for every percentage of in- 
crease in efficiency also gets a bonus on a sliding scale 
according to his relative attainment of the full task, or 
100 per cent. If the worker exceeds the full task he gets 
an additional bonus of i per cent, of his wages for every 
percentage in excess of the standard job. 

Time and motion study in scientific management, how- 
ever, goes beyond the mere study of the movements of 
workers engaged in a particular task, and extends to the 
placing of industrial establishments and their constituent 
parts in such a w^ay as to conserve both time and energy 

*2 Hoxie, R. F.. Scientific Management and Labor, p. 147. 



236 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

in routing of material and transporting stocks and sup- 
plies. 

Scientific management began as an attempt to secure 
greater productivity on the part of labor; it was an at- 
tempt to stimulate by the workman to greater effort. Mr. 
Taylor's first exposition of the subject was a description 
of methods and results obtained for the Midvale Steel 
Company, and the paper setting it forth was entitled "A 
piece-rate system." For a time it was termed the task sys- 
tem. It was not until later, in 191 1, that it was expanded 
under the title "Principles of scientific management," and 
an attempt made to develop a theory which has now be- 
come somewhat elaborate. In its broader theoretical as- 
pects, its advocates claim that "scientific management is a 
system devised by industrial engineers for the purpose of 
subserving the common interests of employers, workmen, 
and society at large, through the elimination of avoidable 
wastes, the general improvement of the processes and 
methods of production, and the just and scientific dis- 
tribution of the product." 

About the system there has been developed a consider- 
able body of literature.^^ The theory in practise, however, 
has been set forth in a comprehensive manner in a limited 
number of sources. The hearings before the House Com- 
mittee on Labor in 1911,^* reports of the Chief of Ord- 
nance, War Department,^^ and a report to the Commis- 

" Scientific Management: A collection of the more significant articles descrip- 
tive of the Taylor system of management, edited by Qarence Bertrand Thomp- 
son. Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1914, 878 pages. This collection of 
original sources is accompanied by a somewhat extended classified bibliography. 

** Hearings before the special committee of the House of Representatives to 
investigate the Taylor and other systems of management, Washington, 1912. 

45 Report of the Chief of Ordnance, 1911-1916. Washington, 1911-1916. 



1 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 237 

sion on Industrial Relations by Prof. Robert Franklin 
Hoxie/*^ are practically the only comprehensive statements 
concerning its actual operation. 

Mr. Hoxie's investigation occupied a year; it covered 
in detail 35 establishments and was supplemented by in- 
terviews with scientific management leaders, experts, em- 
ployers and laboring men. As this investigation and 
analysis carries with it the weight of official authority it 
has been summarized in some detail in the pages fol- 
lowing. 

This investigation is particularly valuable in its study 
of the relations of scientific management to labor, which 
phase of it has been a storm center of the movement on 
account of the violent objections which have arisen to it 
from the side of labor. This opposition has extended so 
far as to have resulted in the enactment of laws, in 191 5 
and 1916, by Congress which were designed to discourage 
the application of scientific management in government 
manufacturing establishments. 

Among the claims of the advocates of Scientific man- 
agement in its behalf are that it substitutes law and order 
in industry in place of guesswork; that it is therefore 
scientific in the true sense; that it makes for labor welfare 
in that it sets each man at the task for which he is best 
qualified, prevents the degradation of his labor, gives him 
continuity of employment, shortens his hours of labor, 
holds out the reward of exceptionally high wages for 
special ability; and finally, that it democratizes industry 
by treating each worker as an individual whose work is 

^° Scientific Management and Labor, by Prof. Robert Franklin Hoxie. 



238 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

not subject to the whim of a foreman. In short, scientific 
management rests on the assumption that high general 
wages and improved conditions of work are quite com- 
patible with low labor costs, — a theory long advanced by 
most economists. 

On the other hand, whatever may be the theory, as in 
other fields frequently, it was not found by the Hoxie 
investigation that the practise always squared with it. 
Under scientific management functional foremanship 
takes the place of personal or gang foremanship. The 
boss under the system supervises not a body of men, 
but the execution of particular tasks or operations in- 
volved in the manufacture of any article. In prac- 
tise it was very frequently found that this functional 
foremanship feature had not been adopted and that men 
were still handled in gangs and not as individuals en- 
gaged in a special function. No evidence was found that 
the practise of selecting men for their tasks or training 
them for their work differed materially from conditions 
in shops where the system had not been applied. 

In the matter of time study and task setting no basis 
w^as found for the claim of the objective, detached charac- 
ter of the facts and so-called laws developed by the 
science. Far from being the invariable and purely ob- 
jective matters that they are pictured, "the methods and 
results of time study and task setting are, in practise, the 
special sport of individual judgment and opinion, subject 
to all the possibilities of diversity, inaccuracy, and in- 
justice that arise from human ignorance and prejudice." 
Altho time study may be advantageously used to 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 239 

standardize and improve methods of work in general, 
used as a means of setting a definite task time or estab- 
lishing an efficiency scale, it becomes subject to judgment. 
Seventeen factors are enumerated wherein personal judg- 
ment may bring about variations so as to alter the task 
itself. Even liberally applied, therefore, time study and 
task setting are bound to create considerable injustice and 
irritation to the workers. 

Altho scientific management claims that current 
methods of determining and paying wages are unscientific, 
unjust and destructive of efficiency, it really accepts those 
current methods. While it may determine on the basis 
of the relative efficiency of the individual workman the 
premium or bonus to which he is entitled in comparison 
with another worker, yet it has found no way of deter- 
mining the ordinary day's wage on the basis of which the 
premiums are calculated, other than the accepted method 
of what the market will bear, namely, free competition. 
It has discovered no way of determining the relative 
efficiency of labor as measured by the share of its con- 
tribution to the value of the product manufactured. 

Scientific management was not found to have affected 
the length of the working day ; nor had it in any case con- 
sidered the matter of fatigue. There exists "nothing in 
the special methods of scientific management to prevent 
speeding up where the technical conditions make it 
possible and profitable, and there is much in these methods 
to induce it in the hands of unscrupulous employers." 

The investigation upheld partially the claim that scien- 
tific management makes more certain promotion and ad- 



240 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

vancement to the efficient worker ; that it lessens the rigors 
of discipHne for the worker because he is set a definite 
and simple task and stimulated by the premium payment 
for super-efficient work. Nothing is, however, stated in 
the report as to the amount of the added premium, em- 
ployers probably being unwilling to disclose this. Infor- 
mation on this point must therefore be sought elsewhere, 
and so far as known can be found only in the annual re- 
ports of the Chief of Ordnance, War Department. From 
the statement of the premiums earned during the last 
month of the fiscal year 1915, the tabulation on p. 241 
was made up : 

The Chief of Ordnance in the report referred to states 
that the system of scientific management, practised in the 
Watertown Arsenal since 191 1, "demonstrates the ad- 
vantage to the Government and the advantage to the 
workmen"; and in 1916 he noted that the withdrawal of 
premium payments through restrictive legislation was 
met with dissatisfaction on the part of those who had 
profited by them. 

The principal claim of scientific management is that 
it furthers the democratizing of industry. On this point 
the report of the Commission on Industrial Relations by 
Professor Hoxie declares : 

"In practise, scientific management generally tends to 
weaken the competitive power of the individual worker 
and thwarts the formation of shop groups and weakens 
group solidarity; moreover, scientific management gen- 
erally is lacking in the arrangements and machinery neces- 
sary for the actual voicing of the workers' ideas and com- 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 



241 



STATEMENT OF PREMIUMS PAID AT THE WATERTOWN (N. Y.) 
ARSENAL. JUNE. 1915 

Average Percentage 

premium of all the 

Number over and above work done 

employed regular pay ex- which was 

Occupation on pressed as a performed 

premium percentage of under 

work the latter premium 

Molders .. 9 27.62 72.48 

Machinists 164 24.13 55.15 

Machinist's helpers .... 25 22.29 8.90 

Blacksmiths 10 19.68 33.39 

Blacksmith's helpers .... 11 21.32 30.34 

Molder's helpers 8 33.16 6.46 

Chippers 10 31.97 38.97 

Laborers 31 28.61 22.85 

Toolmakers 4 20.99 7.13 

Machine operators 2 17.88 97.51 

Screw makers 1 35.30 99.75 

Machinist's apprentices . . 1 1.90 82.04 

Furnace helpers 2 27.35 19.25 

Apprentice molders .... 1 11.64 57.01 

Core makers 1 33.33 2.01 

Firemen 1 25.34 17.35 

Steam-hammer drivers .. 1 24.11 39.58 

Skilled workmen 6 26.98 27.94 

Painters 4 23.21 31.29 

Carpenter's helpers .... 1 43.12 5.75 

Carpenters 7 27.95 15.78 

Toolsmiths 2 33.39 16.56 

Mason's helpers 1 35.97 30.42 

Teamsters 4 31.26 97.48 

Plumber's helpers 1 .35 

Riggers 1 32.14 47.28 

Skilled laborers 1 32.38 14.12 

Engineers, locomotive crane 1 32.36 47.12 

Gang bosses 10 10.70 29.43 

plaints, and for the democratic consideration and adjust- 
ment of grievances. Collective bargaining has ordinarily 
no place in the determination of matters vital to the 
workers, and the attitude toward it is usually tolerant 
only when it is not understood. Finally, unionism, where 
it means a vigorous attempt to force the viewpoint and 



242 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

claims of the workers, is in general looked upon with 
abhorrence, and unions which are looked upon with com- 
placency are not the kind which organized labor in gen- 
eral wants, while the union cooperation which is invited 
is altogether different from that which they stand ready 
to give. In practise, scientific management must, there- 
fore, be declared autocratic; in tendency, a reversion to 
industrial autocracy, which forces the workers to depend 
upon the employer's conception of fairness and limits the 
democratic safeguards of the workers." 

Summarizing, scientific management furthers the 
modern tendency toward specialization of the workers; 
the system tends to break down existing standards of uni- 
formity set up by the workmen and to prevent the estab- 
lishment of suitable conditions of work and play; if fully 
and properly applied it inevitably tends to a constant 
breakdown of the established crafts and craftsmanship 
and the elimination of skill except for the lower orders 
of workmen; it makes possible the breakdown of the basis 
of present-day unionism in its dominant form and renders 
collective bargaining as now practised impossible in any 
effective sense; the system seems to be making the rela- 
tively unskilled more efficient than ever before, but, altho 
unskilled labor may be receiving greater earnings than 
ever before under it, the gathering up and systematization 
of the knowledge formerly in possession of the workmen 
has a tendency to add to the strength of capitalism ; scien- 
tific management can not be said to make for the avoid- 
ance of strikes and the establishment of industrial peace. 
On the whole, if the principles and practises of collective 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 243 

bargaining can be made practically applicable to its opera- 
tion, probably many, if not all, of the objections to scien- 
tific management on the part of labor will be eliminated. 
The above findings resulting from the investigation and 
submitted to the Commission on Industrial Relations were 
signed by the investigator. Professor Hoxie, and by 
Messrs. Frey and Valentine, collaborators in an advisory 
capacity, and representing the respective interests of the 
employees and employers. 



244 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 



VI 

THE WAGE-EARNER'S FAMILY 

The budget of the workingman's family — its income 
and expenditures — is coming to be accepted, more gen- 
erally than ever before, as the proper criterion of the 
economic status of the wage- working population. A 
multitude of investigations of wages and earnings of 
individual workers have served to give a more definite 
and practical meaning to what was once a rather trite 
philosophical concept of society; the family is now 
regarded as the economic as well as the social unit. 
The numerous studies of wage- working women, for 
example, have disclosed that a very large proportion 
of them actually live with their families as wives or 
daughters, and that a still larger proportion contribute 
to the support of their families. The "pin money" 
theory of women's entrance into industry has been 
thoroughly demolished by every investigation; it has 
been found that women and girls become earners of 
wages largely, if not almost entirely, because their 
wages are needed to make family incomes adequate to 
meet family needs. Individuals are, for the greater part 
of their wage-working lives, economic as well as social 
components of family groups. 

A number of studies conducted by Federal authori- 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 245 

ties and other agencies during the last 15 years have 
aimed directly at ascertaining the economic status of 
wage-earning families. In the majority of these inves- 
tigations the budget method has been used, data relat- 
ing to total family income and total family expendi- 
tures for specified periods being obtained. In other 
investigations data relating to total family income alone 
have been secured. In all over 50,000 v^age-earning 
families, carefully selected as representative of the 
wage-v^orking population, have been included in these 
studies. They are regarded as fairly representative of 
family groups in different ranges of income, in the 
principal industries and occupations, and in the princi- 
pal industrial localities in the United States. The 
resulting statistics are not estimates or calculations 
from v^age data of individual v^orkers, but are state- 
ments of actual conditions found to exist. In a very 
great degree the conclusions indicated by these different 
studies are similar, altho allowance must be made for 
differences in the localities and in the periods covered. 
Altho family incomes do not vary according to season 
or year as much as earnings of individual workers — 
since family income is usually the sum of the earnings 
of two or more wage-workers and of income from other 
sources — they are affected by industrial activity to a 
great extent. Thus statistics covering a series of years 
can not be regarded as accurately picturing conditions at 
any specified time where the opportunity for earnings 
is either above or below the normal. In the early 
months of 191 5, for example, the economic status of 



246 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

practically all wage-workers' families was below nor- 
mal, while a year later it was abnormally improved. 
The absence of continuously collected statistics renders 
exact statements impossible. 

If, however, the results of these investigations are 
considered in detail and as a whole, it is believed that 
a fairly correct and intimate view of conditions in a 
large and representative number of wage- working fami- 
lies is possible. With this purpose in mind, and with a 
full realization of the limitations upon the available 
data, the results of the more important family studies 
are summarized under the following heads: 

Annual Incomes of Wage- Working Families. 

Sources of Family Incomes. 

Expenditures of Wage- Working Families. 

Annual Incomes of Wage-Working Families 

In order to afford as complete a statement of the 
total annual incomes of wage- working families as is 
possible in the space available here, the statistics are 
stated in the following ways: (i) Average annual 
income; (2) Distribution of families according to 
income; (3) Distribution of families of different races 
according to income; (4) Differences in family income 
according to geographic divisions; (5) Differences in 
family income according to industry. 

Average Annual Income of Wage-Working Families. 
— Available data on the annual income of workingmen's 
families in the United States, collected during recent 



IN 'AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 247 

years, indicate that the average income has been between 
$700 and $800. This statement is subject, of course, 
to the qualification that the available statistics are by 
no means a census of workingmen's families, but that 
they represent numbers of families selected as typical 
by investigators, whose wage-earning members are 
employed in the principal industries in a large number of 
industrial localities. An actual average is impossible 
of statement; the most definite statement permitted by 
the existing data is that there is a certain range of 
income — between $700 and $800 a year — in which the 
actual average is probably to be found. 

The Federal Bureau of Labor's investigation of 25,440 
workingmen's families in 1901, which included a rather 
large proportion of native white and older immigrant 
families, showed an average annual income of $750. 
The Federal Immigration Commission's investigation of 
15,726 workingmen's families in 1908 and 1909, which 
included a rather large proportion of newer immigrant 
families, showed an average income of about $720. 

These are the two most extensive investigations in 
recent years which secured data as to annual family 
income. Several local studies of workingmen's fami- 
lies, while tending to corroborate the generalization stated 
above, suggest variations according to locality, race and 
industry. These studies and their results, so far as 
they relate to the average total income of the families 
investigated, may be summarized briefly thus : 



248 



CONDITIONS OF LABOR 



AVERAGE ANNUAL INCOME OF WORKINGMEN'S FAMILIES IN THE 

UNITED STATES. SUMMARY FROM RECENT 

INVESTIGATIONS 

Investigation and Year in Which it Was Made faimili^ Average 

C ^ ^-77" ^ included .^"""^1 

Year Source of data in data "^come 

1901 Bureau of Labor's Cost of Living study, 
all sections of U. S., industries and 
races of workers 25,440 $749 

1903-4 Mrs. L. B. More: budgetary study of 
families in Greenwich Village, Nev/ 
York City 200 851 

1907 R. C. Chapin: budgetary study of fami- 
lies of varied races and occupations in 
New York City 391 838 

1907 New York State Conference of Charities 

and Corrections : studies of families of 
varied races and occupations in 
Rochester, New York 100 600 

1908 M. F. Byington (Russell Sage Founda- 

tion) : families of steel workers in 

Homestead, Pa 90 349 

1908-9 Bureau of Labor : studies of silk, cotton, 
men's clothing, and glass workers' 
families in various localities in which 
mothers and children were wage- 
earners 8,741 883 

1908-9 Immigration Commission: data for fami- 
lies in 38 principal industries in all 
eastern and southern sections, of all 
races 15,726 721 

1909-10 University of Chicago Settlement: fami- 
lies of Chicago stock-yards workers, 
principally of races of recent immi- 
gration 184 442 



The above data include only families for which sta- 
tistics of actual total family income were obtained, and 
are not based on computations from weekly wage 
statistics or statistics of annual earnings of individual 
workers. 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 249 

Distribution of Wage- Working Families According 
to Income. — Statistics of average annual family income 
could not, of course, depict actual conditions, even if 
such statistics were available for all families. Even 
if the average income were sufficient to maintain the 
average family in decency and in health, there would 
of necessity be a large proportion with incomes below 
the average and below an adequate standard. The dis- 
tribution of families according to income, as found by 
the two principal investigations in recent years, is shown 
in the following summary tabulation : 

Per cent, of families having a total income 



Investigation and Year in 
Which It Was Made 



U. S. Bureau of Labor, 1901 

U. S. Immigration Commission, 

1908-1909 

o These included only families in which the head was the wage-earning 
member, and the families were almost entirely native born and of the older 
immigration from Great Britain and Northern Europe. 

b These included families without regard to proportion of income contributed 
by other members than family head, and a majority of the families were of the 
newer immigration from Southern and Central Europe. 

Distribution of Wage-Working Families of Different 
Races According to Income. — The extensive investiga- 
tions of the Immigration Commission found that there 
was a marked difference between the incomes of fami- 
lies of two general groups, i.e., (i) the native-born and 
older immigration, and (2) the newer immigration. The 
findings of the Commission on this point are summar- 
ized in the following table: 







f 

































> 


Ti m 




















V .a 


CO 






00 




\^ 


It! 




■««- 


09- 


<(9- 


Vh 


<fi- 







11 


CJ 


in 


1; 


1) 








oj a 


TS 


"O 


•a 


"O 


T3 


D 


Cfl M-4 


G 


fl 


c 


c 


S 


*-J, 


^ 




P 


ID 


"^ 


p 


D 


<«■ 


11 


156a 


1.3 


21.2 




81.2 


94.5 


5.5 


15,726b 


7.6 


31.3 


64.0 


.... 


82.6 


17.4 



250 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

ANNUAL FAMILY INCOME OF 15,726 WAGE-EARNERS' FAMILIES IN 
1^08-1909 by NATIVITY GROUPS AND RACE; PER CENT. 
HAVING TOTAL INCOME OF EACH SPECIFIED 
AMOUNT 1 

Num- ^^^ cent, of families having a total 
ber of income 

General Nativity and Race of families ' ^^ ^ 

Head op Family selected Under Under Under Under Under 

$300 $500 $750 $1,000 $1,500 

Native white 1,070 2.2 13.5 45.1 72.7 93.6 

Total native-born 1,901 2.2 17.6 49.0 74.1 93.2 

Older immigration: 

Canadian, French 477 1.9 10.9 44.2 72.1 91.0 

English 425 1.9 11.8 37.9 62.4 88.9 

German 887 2.4 15.1 44.9 70.9 91.5 

Irish .. .. 675 2.1 12.1 38.4 61.0 84.1 

Swedish 460 0.9 6.3 34.8 66.7, 89.1 

Newer immigration: 

Bohemian and Moravian . . . . 437 3.7 22.4 60.2 80.8 94.1 

Croatian 560 10.4 37.9 68.9 84.1 93.8 

Hebrew 660 9.1 33.5 69.4 87.0 97.0 

Italian, North 583 9.1 36.4 70.8 88.7 96.7 

Italian, South 1,380 16.6 50.9 79.5 91.4 98.5 

Lithuanian 763 6.9 33.2 73.9 90.8 97.6 

Magyar 860 12.9 40.2 75.5 90.7 98.0 

Polish 2,038 10.5 44.0 79.0 91.4 97.8 

Ruthenian 571 10.0 43.3 82.1 94.4 98.9 

Slovak 1,243 10.9 43.8 77.9 92.0 98.9 

Grand total 15,726 7.6 31.3 64.0 82.6 95.0 

Differences in Family Income According to Geo- 
graphic Divisions. — Workingmen's families were found 
to have larger average incomes in the northern than 
in the southern States in spite of the larger proportion 
of newer immigrants in the north. This situation 
was set forth clearly by the Federal Bureau of Labor's 
investigation of 25,440 families in 1901, as shown in 
the following compilation on p. 251. 

This difference was found to prevail by the later 
investigations of the Immigration Commission in sev- 
eral industries. In iron and steel manufacturing, for 
example, the average annual family income of steel 
workers in the Pittsburgh district was found to be $647 ; 

* Vol. xix., p. 125, Immigration Commission reports. 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 251 

AVERAGE FAMILY INCOME OF 25,440 WORKINGMEN'S FAMILIES IN 
1901, BY GEOGRAPHICAL DIVISIONS » 

Number Average Total 

of size income 

Geographical Division families of per 

selected family family 

North Atlantic States 13,782 4.80 $755.49 

South Atlantic States 2,193 5.16 690.80 

North Central States 7,340 4.98 751.62 

South Central States 1,221 5.22 675.42 

Western States 904 4.14 883.39 

Total 25,440 4.88 749.50 

in Birmingham, Ala., district, $492. The federal Bureau 
of Labor in 1907-9 also found similar differences in the 
cotton textile industry, as is set forth later in this 
summary. 

Differences in Family Income 'According to Indus- 
try. — Of more importance are the differences in family 
income according to the industry in which the family 
head is employed. Roughly speaking, approximately one- 
half of the families of several thousand typical work- 
ers in agricultural implements, collars and cuffs, cotton 
goods, furniture, glass, show manufacturing, and in 
iron-ore mining, oil refining and slaughtering and meat 
packing, were found to have incomes of over $750. 
But approximately a fourth of the families of workers 
employed in agricultural implements, clothing, cotton 
goods and glass manufacturing, and in slaughtering 
and meat packing, had incomes of less than $500, while 
over a third of the families of anthracite coal miners, 
leather, silk goods and woolen and worsted workers, 
had less than $500. Nearly half of the families of 
bituminous coal miners and over a half of the fami- 

* 18th Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labor, p. 366. 



252 



CONDITIONS OF. LABOR 



lies of iron and steel workers had incomes under $500. 
Data for incomes of families of workers in the vari- 
ous principal industries have been summarized from 
the extensive reports of the Immigration Commission 
(Volume 19) in the following tables: 



PER CENT. OF FAMILIES HAVING A TOTAL YEARLY INCOME OF 
EACH SPECIFIED AMOUNT, BY INDUSTRY 



Industry 



Agricultural implements and veh 

cles 

Cigars and tobacco 

Clothing 

Coal mining, anthracite 
Coal mining, bituminous . . 

Collars and Cuffs 

Copper mining and smelting . 

Cotton goods 

Furniture 

Glass 

Gloves 

Iron and steel 

Iron ore mining 

Leather 

Oil refining 

Shoes 

Silk goods 

Slaughtering and meat-packing. 

Sugar refining 

Woolen and worsted goods 
Diversified manufactures . . 

Total $721 





Per cent, o-f families having a 


total 








income 






Average 
family 






X 






Under 


Under 


Under 


Under 


Under 


income 


$300 


$500 


$750 


$1,000 


$1,500 


$741 


4.7 


25.2 


58.2 


85.1 


96.4 


970 


0.8 


3.2 


21.8 


58.9 


94.4 


713 


6.3 


28.9 


66.2 


84.8 


96.2 


618 


5.2 


36.0 


73.8 


90.2 


99.1 


577 


9.7 


47.2 


81.2 


92.1 


98.3 


861 


2.5 


11.4 


42.2 


72.2 


93.7 


991 


0.4 


1.2 


28.7 


68.2 


88.0 


791 


3.0 


25.8 


59.2 


77.2 


92.0 


769 


2.5 


16.7 


56.2 


81.4 


96.5 


755 


4.9 


23.2 


58.7 


82.1 


95.1 


904 


0.4 


6.1 


41.7 


74.3 


93.9 


568 


20.8 


52.1 


77.7 


90.1 


97.1 


990 


2.2 


9.5 


43.3 


71.0 


86.1 


671 


5.9 


38.3 


70.4 


84.0 


96.5 


828 


3.8 


18.1 


53.4 


74.7 


93.2 


765 


7.5 


32.1 


59.7 


78.7 


93.6 


635 


16.1 


38.0 


69.8 


88.7 


98.4 


781 


3.2 


22.3 


58.9 


79.0 


93.4 


661 


4.6 


19.7 


7S.7 


92.5 


98.8 


661 


10.6 


37.1 


68.8 


85.1 


97.3 


772, 


5.4 


27.3 


59.7 


78.8 


93.2 



7.6 



31.3 



64.0 



82.6 



95.0 



The Federal Bureau of Labor's investigation in 1907- 
1909 of 8,741 families in which the family income was 
partly contributed by wife or children or both, as shown 
in the Report on Woman and Child Wage-Earners, 
found the average family income to be as follows in 
four industries : 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 253 

J Number of Average of all 

INDUSTRY families income 

Silk manufacturing 1,909 $966 

Men's clothing .. .. 2,274 790 

Glass manufacturing 2,137 855 

Cotton textiles: 

New England 854 1,134 

South 1,567 822 

This investigation, however, included families whose 
incomes were probably higher than the average in the 
industries named, since only families where women and 
children were employed for wages were made the 
subject of study. 

Sources of Family Income 

Less than half of the wage-earners' families in the 
United States whose heads are at work have been 
found to be supported by the earnings of the husband 
or father. In over one-fifth of them the children con- 
tributed to family income from their earnings. In from 
5 to lo per cent, of them the wife contributed to the 
family income out of her earnings. In over one-fourth 
of them the family income was supplemented by pay- 
ments of rent or board from outside persons. The 
larger the family, as a general rule, the larger were the 
contributions from wage-earning children. It was shown 
that the father reaches the limit of his earning oppor- 
tunity early in the family life, and that the children, if 
family income is to be increased sufficiently to maintain 
a minimum standard of decent living as they reach 
adolescence, must go to work. 

These conclusions seem to be warranted by several 
authoritative, comprehensive and careful investigations 



254 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

of the economic status of wage-earners' families in the 
United States during the past fifteen years. 

The situation has been most comprehensively set 
forth in the results of a recent investigation of nearly 
16,000 wage-workers' families,^ which is corroborated 
by other investigations into specific industries. In 
only 58 per cent, of the native famiHes was family 
income supplied entirely by the earnings of the hus- 
band. In 15 per cent, of the families the children con- 
tributed to family income, and in about 8 per cent, of 
the families payments from boarders and lodgers helped 
to make up the family fund. In families of foreign- 
born workers the proportion supported by the husband 
was considerably less, and payments from boarders and 
lodgers figured much more extensively. The follow- 
ing tabulation sets forth the situation in detail: 

SOURCES OF ENTIRE FAMILY INCOME IN 15,704 WORKINGMEN'S 
FAMILIES IN THE PRINCIPAL INDUSTRIES, 1908-1909 

Per cent, of families 

A 

Source of Entire Family Income Native Foreign- 

( white) bom Total a 

Husband 58.4 38.0 40.7 

Husband and wife 3.1 3.9 3.8 

Husband and children 14.0 12.8 12.7 

Husband, wife and children 0.5 0.5 0.5 

Husband and boarders or lodgers .... 6.7 25.5 23.2 

Wife 0.3 0.2 0.2 

Wife and children 1.0 0.4 0.5 

Wife and boarders or lodgers 0.2 0.1 0.1 

Children 1.6 1.4 1.4 

Children and boarders or lodgers .... 0.2 0.6 0.5 

Boarders or lodgers 0.0 0.3 0.3 

Other sources and combinations of sources 14.0 16.2 15.9 
o Including native negro and native born of foreign father. 

The sources of family income among older immigrant 

8 Reports of Immigration Commission, Vol. 19, pp. 129-130. 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 



2SS 



families, from Great Britain and northern Europe are 
very similar to those found to exist in native families. 
The real difference exists between the native and older 
immigrant group and the newer immigrant group. This is 
clearly shown by the statistics published in the Reports of 
the U. S. Immigration Commission, summarized below : 



OLD AND NEW IMMIGRATION COMPARED WITH RESPECT 
SOURCE OF INCOME BY RACE (STUDY OF HOUSEHOLDS)^ 

Per cent, of families having 



Race 



TO 



Old immigration: 

Canadian, French .. 

English 

German 

Irish 

Norwegian . . . . 

Scotch 

Welsh 

New immigration : 

Armenian . . . . 

Brava 

Croatian 

Cuban 

Greek 

Hebrew 

Italian, North 

Italian, South . . . . 

Lithuanian . . . . 

Magyar 

Polish 

Portuguese . . . . 

Roumanian . . . . 

Russian 

Ruthenian 

Servian 

Slovak 

Slovenian . . . . 

Syrian 

^ Reports of Immigration Commission, 





entire income from 




'' 




Husband 


'' 




Husband 


and 




Husband 


and 


boarders 


Unspecified 




children 


and 
lodgers 


sources 


32.7 


29.6 


6.3 


14.3 


41.3 


25.9 


7.1 


14.6 


37.3 


22.6 


9.6 


23.2 


332 


26.5 


6.4 


20.0 


46.2 


26.9 


0.0 


19.2 


38.2 


26.0 


4.1 


26.0 


35.6 


26.7 


2.2 


26.7 


29.6 


8.2 


14.3 


27.6 


69.0 


0.0 


10.3 


13.8 


34.3 


3.8 


52.0 


8.4 


51.2 


14.0 


9.3 


11.6 


38.8 


8.2 


18.4 


16.3 


54.4 


17.7 


13.9 


9.7 


41.0 


7.4 


27.3 


17.8 


39.7 


9.3 


26.5 


14.2 


28.7 


5.0 


43.7 


19.7 


32.1 


4.8 


43.5 


14.3 


35.8 


8.5 


37.7 


13.2 


29.5 


14.3 


7A 


26.4 


20.3 


0.0 


6S2 


11.6 


43.4 


2.6 


46.1 


6.6 


27.8 


5.8 


41.7 


15.6 


8.6 


0.0 


79.3 


5.2 


44.0 


7.8 


29.3 


14.7 


48.5 


9.2 


29.4 


6.1 


28.9 


9.9 


16.2 


14.8 


mission. Vol 


xix, p. 132. 





256 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

The conclusion seems warranted that a shghtly larger 
proportion of children contributed to family income in 
native families than in immigrant families, but children 
were much more frequent contributors to family income 
in the case of older immigrant families than in the 
case of either native-born or newer immigrant fami- 
lies. The prevalence of the practise among newer immi- 
grant households of taking boarders and lodgers was 
clearly shown in the statistics of sources of family 
income. 

To state the situation in another way, it has been 
found that in about 7 per cent, of wage-earners' fami- 
lies the wage-earning wife contributed to the family 
income and in about 22 per cent, children wage-earn- 
ers w^ere contributors. In 10 per cent, of native white 
families dependence was placed upon boarders and 
lodgers for a part of the family income, while in 30 
per cent, of all families having immigrant heads pay- 
ments from boarders and lodgers helped to constitute 
the family income. The following summarv nresents 
these statistics in detail : ^ 

PER CENT. OF 15,704 FAMILIES HAVING AN INCOME FROM 

HUSBAND, WIFE, CHILDREN, BOARDERS OR LODGERS 

AND OTHER SOURCES 

Per cent, of families 

A __^ 

Source of Family Income Native Foreign- 

(white) born Total a 
Earnings, of 

Husband 94.9 95.8 95.8 

Wife 7.2 6.9 6.9 

Contributions of children . . . . 21.5 22.5 22.2 

Payments of boarders or lodgers 10.0 32.9 30.1 

Other sources 12.3 12.7 12.6 

a Including native negro and native born of foreign father. 
« Reports of the Immigration Commission, Vol. XIX., p. 128. 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 2^7 

Not only does the proportion of family income from 
husband, wife, children and boarders and lodgers vary 
according to racial groups and races, but it varies 
according to industry. It Is clear that in industries where 
the annual earnings of adult males are low, and where the 
proportion of unskilled workers is large, the earnings of 
heads of families must be supplemented by income from 
other sources. Thus, in those industries where women 
and children are employed it was found that the family 
was dependent upon them for a considerable proportion 
of its income. This was particularly true of cigar and 
tobacco manufacturing and the cotton goods, gloves, 
silk goods and woolen and worsted goods industries. 
In anthracite coal mining in a large proportion of the 
families investigated children were contributors to fam- 
ily income, a condition due to the employment of 
"breaker boys," while none of the mothers were em- 
ployed. The same situation was found to prevail in 
furniture manufacturing and slaughtering and meat- 
packing. The conditions for the principal Industries 
are summarized according to general nativity groups as 
shown on p. 258. 

In silk manufacturing the proportion of family In- 
come contributed by the wife and children is large. 
Even children under 16 years of age In New Jersey 
and Pennsylvania silk mills were found by the Federal 
Bureau of Labor to contribute considerably to family 
income, as the table on p. 259, compiled from its Investi- 
gation, shows. 



258 



CONDITIONS OF LABOR 



SOURCES OF FAMILY INCOME IN FAMILIES OF WAGE-WORKERS 

IN SPECIFIED INDUSTRIES BY GENERAL 

NATIVITY GROUPS » 

Per cent, of families having entire income 
from 



Husband 
Industry and 

Husband wife 

Agricultural implements 

Native 70.2 2.8 

Foreign 42.7 1.2 

Boots and shoes: 

Native 42.1 6.3 

Foreign 33.0 6.7 

Cigars and tobacco (Tampa, Fla.) ; 

Foreign 51.6 11.3 

Clothing: 

Native 47.3 4.4 

Foreign 48.2 4.6 

Anthracite coal mining: 

Foreign 34.2 ..,, 

Cotton goods: 

Native 46.5 7.0 

Foreign 31.0 12.4 

Furniture: 

Native 55.2 1.7 

Foreign 39.4 1.2 

Glass: 

Native 65.3 1.7 

Foreign 39.9 0.4 

Gloves : 

Native 33.2 18.5 

Foreign 23.2 29.1 

Iron and steel: 

Native 66.2 3.0 

Foreign 36.1 1.4 

Iron ore mining: 

Native 61.0 .... 

Foreign 40.1 .... 

Leather: 

Native 54.3 4.0 

Foreign 57.3 1.4 

Oil Refining: 

Native 71.0 3.2 

Foreign 40.3 1.3 

Silk: 

Native 61.9 0.0 

Foreign 44.5 13.2 

Sugar refining: 

Foreign 30.2 0.6 

Woolen and worsted: 

Foreign 23,4 15.5 

' Reports of United States Immigration Commission. 



Husband 

and 
children 


Husband 
and lodg- 
ers or 
boarders 


9.9 
18.8 


9.2 
20.Z 


13.5 
11.3 


8.7 

25.0 


13.7 


8.9 


17.8 
17.3 


14.9 
14.6 


14.1 


30.6 


15.5 
19.2 


7.0 
9.5 


15.5 
27.0 


13.8 
13.1 


11.9 
9.9 


7.6 
36.6 


0.0 
12.3 


11.1 
5.4 


11.4 
7.1 


6.7 
Z7.7 


4.8 
4.8 


19.0 
32.9 


13.3 
18.4 


12.0 
28.3 


9.7 
10.8 


6.5 
29.9 


14.3 
15.0 


4.8 
10.6 


8.1 


50.0 


13.1 


15.2 



IN 'AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 259 

PER CENT. OF FAMILY INCOME FROM SPECIFIED SOURCES IN 
1,909 FAMILIES OF SILK-MILL WORKERS » 

Per cent, of family income 
from specified sources 

A 

Source of Family Income New Jersey Pennsylvania 

silk mills silk mills 

Father 46.3 34.0 

Mother 36.8 23.1 

Children over 16: 

Males 35.6 38.2 

Females 42.2 26.3 

Children, 14-15 years of age . . . . 17.6 16.2 

Children under 14 11.6 13.4 

The same situation was found to exist in the glass 
industry by the Bureau of Labor, thus: 

SOURCE OF FAMILY INCOME IN 2,137 FAMILIES OF GLASS- 
WORKERS » 

_, ^ _ Per cent, of family income 

Source of Family Income f^^^ ^p^^ig^^ /^^^^^^ 

Father 56.0 

Mother 25.1 

Children 14 and 15 18.9 

Children under 14 15.7 

In 2,274 families of clothing industry workers it was 
found by the Bureau of Labor that the average annual 
earnings of the fathers was $400; of mothers, $150; 
of children 14 and 15 years of age, $129, and of chil- 
dren under 14 years of age, $78. 

In the textile industry, which has been remarkable 
for its employment of women and children, the fathers 
of mill families were but little more important as bread- 
winners than the mothers and the children. The moth- 

8 Woman and Child Wage-Earners, Vol. iv, p. 263. 
» Ibid., Vol. iii, pp. 254-255. 



26o CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

ers contributed more to the family income in northern 
than in southern mill towns, while children under i6 
years of age were larger contributors in the southern 
mill towns than in the north. While the family's de- 
pendence upon the earnings of children under 12 years 
of age was greater in southern textile localities than 
in northern, the proportion of family income contributed 
by children in the cotton mills, both northern and 
southern, as compared with the proportion in other occu- 
pations in which children can engage was relatively high, 
and the inducement to their early entrance into this indus- 
try was unquestionably great. Sources of the income of 
representative textile mill families are set forth in the fol- 
lowing summary tabulation: 

PER CENT. OF FAMILY INCOME FROM SPECIFIED SOURCES IN 2,421 

FAMILIES OF TEXTILE WORKERS IN NEW ENGLAND 

AND SOUTHERN MILLS «> 

Per cent, of family income 
from specified sources 

Source of Family Income , ^ ■ -^ 

New England Southern 

Father ^7-7 34.0 

Mother 32.4 27.9 

Children 14 and 15 18.7 22.9 

Children 12 and 13 14.3 17.6 

Children under 12 3.6 13.5 

Differences in the relative importance of the princi- 
pal sources of family income in different sections of 
the country were exhibited by the Federal cost of living 
investigation in 1901. The general conclusions as to 

"Woman and Child Wage-Earners, Vol. i, p. 432. 



IN 'AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 261 

sources of family income coincide remarkably with the 
results of the Federal Immigration Commission inves- 
tigations made eight years later, but the data were so 
arranged as to indicate geographical differences. These 
differences were shown to be principally between the 
northern and southern states, on the one hand, and 
between the western states and the rest of the country, on 
the other hand, as indicated in the following : 

SOURCES OF INCOME OF 25,440 WORKINGMEN'S FAMILIES IN 1901 
BY GEOGRAPHICAL DIVISIONS " 

Per cent, of families with income from Occupation of 



Division 
Geographical 


Husbands 


Wives 


Children 


Boarders 

and 
lodgers 


Other 
sources 


North Atlantic. 


95.9 


9.0 


21.6 


23.4 


15.1 


South Atlantic. 


93.4 


13.9 


28.5 


28.4 


18.0 


North Central.. 


97.6 


6.0 


21.9 


22.1 


11.3 


South Central .. 


92.9 


11.7 


24.2 


23.9 


21.1 


Western . . . . 


92.1 


3.3 


14.2 


16.0 


8.7 


United States .. 


95.9 


8.5 


22.1 


232 


14.3 



Looking at the family income problem from another 
point of view, the Federal Bureau of Labor's investi- 
gation of wage-earning women in stores and factories 
who live at home presented some significant data. The 
average weekly earnings of factory girls living at home 
in seven large cities was found to be $6.40, of which 
$5.46 went to the family fund. This extensive study 
showed that from 53 to 75 per cent, of the girls con- 
tributed all of their earnings to the family income, as 
indicated in the following table: 

^Compiled from 18th Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labor, p. 51. 



262 



CONDITIONS OF LABOR 



CONTRIBUTIONS TO FAMILY INCOME BY WOMEN WORKERS IN 

FACTORIES, MILLS AND MISCELLANEOUS ESTABLISHMENTS 

IN SEVEN CITIES, LIVING AT HOME » 



Average 

City weekly 

earnings 

Boston $6.47 

Chicago 7.26 

Minneapolis and St. Paul . . 6.41 

New York 6.09 

Philadelphia 6.72 

St. Louis 6.61 

Total $6.40 



Average 
weekly 
amount 
paid to 
family 

$5.16 
5.71 
4.49 
5.64 
5.40 
5.45 



$5.46 



Per cent. 

Paying all 

earnings to 

family 

61.7 
81.3 
53.5 
88.1 
67.9 
74.9 



An investigation by the same authority of women 
workers in department and other retail stores in the 
same cities showed a very similar condition, thus: 

CONTRIBUTIONS TO FAMILY INCOME BY WOMEN WORKERS IN 
RETAIL STORES IN SEVEN CITIES, LIVING AT HOME " 



Average 

City weekly 

earnings 

Boston $6.71 

Chicago 8.05 

Minneapolis and St. Paul . . 6.94 

New York 6.00 

Philadelphia 7.51 

St. Louis 6.37 

Total $6.88 

« Woman and Child Wage-Earners, VqI v, p. 25. 



Average 
weekly 
amount 
paid to 
family 


Per cent. 

Paying all 

earnings to 

family 


$4.83 


55.6 


6.49 


78.7 


4.33 


47.9 


5.29 


84.3 


5.61 


56.8 


5.39 


77.9 



$5.39 



IN 'AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 263 

The Connecticut report shows a similar situation 
according to general nativity groups/^ thus: 







Per 


cent, contributing to 
family income 


ATaxtvttv 


Number 
included 




\ 




IN ATIVITY 

Groups 


All of 


Part of 


None of 




in report 


earnings 


earnings 


earnings 


Native white : 










Native parents .. 


454 


61.6 


36.1 


22 


Foreign parents.. 


.. 887 


69.9 


29.2 


0.9 


Foreign born . . . . 


.. 660 


74.6 


24.7 


0.6 


Total 


. . 2,001 


69.6 


29.2 


1.1 



The Wisconsin Industrial Commission's investiga- 
tion in 1 914 of women wage-workers in Wisconsin 
also afforded some positive conclusions as to the amount 
actually contributed to the family income by the wage- 
earning women living at home ''and the large number 
of women and young girls who through death or dis- 
ability of the natural head of the family, were forced 
to carry all or a large share of the burden of the family 
expense." Commenting on the data obtained on this 
point, the Commission concluded: 

"The fact that out of 13,686 wage-earning women 
living at home, exclusive of widows and married 
women, 38 per cent, give all their earnings to the fam- 
ily, w^hile only 2 per cent, give nothing, does not fur- 
nish much evidence in favor of the pin-money theory." 

The conclusion that the income of the girl living at 
home is often a main factor in the family support 
instead of a somewhat subordinate item was unmistak- 

" Page 253, quoted by C. E. Persons in Quarterly Journal of Economics, 
February, 1915, p. 225. 



264 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

ably corroborated by the extensive data obtained by the 
Wisconsin investigation. 

The importance of contributions from wage-earning 
women to the income of the workingman's family is 
further indicated by the statistics as to age of women 
workers and as to the proportion Hving at home. 

Without going into detailed statistical presentations, 
it may be stated that about one-fourth of all women 
employees in manufacturing and mercantile establish- 
ments are from i6 to 20 years of age and about a 
fourth are from 21 to 25 years of age. Thus, consid- 
erably over one-half of the female wage-earners em- 
ployed in industry are girls and women under 25 years 
of age. The younger the woman worker, it has been 
found, the greater is the proportion of her earnings 
contributed to family income. 

The large proportion of girls and young women in 
the female wage-earning group suggests that they are 
not independent workers, but members of families. 
This is thoroughly borne out by all the statistics avail- 
able. The Federal Bureau of Labor's investigation of 
women employed in stores and factories, already re- 
ferred to, showed that over three- fourths of the women 
in stores and over four- fifths of the women in fac- 
tories lived at home.^^ Another investigation showed 
even a higher percentage.^^ The Census for about 900,- 
000 working women (excluding servants and waitresses 

15 Woman and Child Wage-Earners, Vol. v, p. 15. 

*« McLean, Wage-Earning Women, Data for 5,503 wage-earning women in 
New York, Chicago, New England and New Jersey, showed that approximately 
85 per cent, lived at home. 



1 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 265 

who lived with their employers) showed about 81 per 
cent, lived at home. Of those living at home, nearly 
three-fourths were living in families where there were 
other breadwinners. The recent investigation of wage- 
earning women in Wisconsin by the Wisconsin Indus- 
trial Commission (1914) showed that of 17,356 women 
.workers about 81 per cent, lived at home. 

In no other situation, possibly, is the dependence 
upon earnings of wives and children so seriously sig- 
nificant as in the "sweating" trades. In an investiga- 
tion of "home-working" conditions in certain large 
cities, only about 11 per cent, of the husbands in typi- 
cal families where home work was done earned $500 or 
more per annum, while over a half of them earned 
less than $300 a year. In more detail the situation is 
shown in the following tabulation: 

EARNINGS OF HUSBANDS OF "HOME-WORKING" WOMEN IN 

CHICAGO, ROCHESTER, NEW YORK, PHILADELPHIA 

AND BALTIMORE " 

Range of Per cent, of 

Annual 532 husbands 

Income of home-workers 

Under $100 .. 3.8 

$100-$199 18.4 

200- 299 34.4 

300- 399 20.3 

400- 499 12.2 

500 and over 10,9 

In New York, where the largest number of homes 
were investigated, nearly two-thirds of the husbands 
of women employed as homeworkers earned less than 
$300 annually. 

" Compiled from Woman and Child Wage-Earners, Vol. ii, p, 244, 



266 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

The necessity for contributions to family income 
from other sources than the husband is seen in practi- 
cally all industries and occupations where the level of 
wages is low or where irregularity of employment is 
so great as to reduce the opportunity for earning wages 
adequate to support a family. An illustration of this 
is afforded by a recent investigation of wages and 
family budgets in the Chicago stockyards district/"^* One 
hundred and eighty- four families, chiefly of newer im- 
migrants employed at unskilled labor, were selected as* 
representative and were studied in a detailed manner. 
In only 94 families, or about one-half, was the father 
the only wage-earner; in 52 families children of 14 or 
15 years of age were at work; in 21 cases the wife 
worked all or part time for wages; 92 families had 
incomes from boarders or lodgers, and 42 families had 
other sources of income. ^'Probably the two most 
significant facts disclosed by our analysis of the 184 
family incomes," said the report of the investigators, 
"are, first, that the average income was $854.13 per 
family; and, second, that the average income secured 
by the 170 husbands who were at work was $503.15, or 
less than $10 per week." These figures, it may be 
noted, coincide very closely with the statistics obtained 
for this industry by the Federal Immigration Commis- 
sion and may be regarded as typical. The following 
summary for the 184 families shows the situation 
clearly : 

"» By J. C. Kennedy and others for the University of Chicago Settlement. 



t 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 267 

SOURCES OF FAMILY INCOME IN 184 FAMILIES IN CHICAGO 
STOCKYARDS DISTRICT ^^ 

Families securing 
Source of Family Income All families income from 

specific source 

Husband $464.87 $503.15 

Children, 14-15 years of age . . 54.38 200.14 

Other members of family.. .. 210.01 552.02 

Lodgers 91.72 183.44 

Other sources 33.15 14523 

Total $854.13 

The relation between the dependency of the family 
upon sources of income other than the father's earnings 
and the amount of the father's earnings is, of course, 
fundamental. It has been brought out clearly in at 
least two authoritative investigations of wage-earners' 
families, that conducted by Prof. R. C. Chapin in 
New York City in 1907 and that by the British Board 
of Trade in the course of its inquiry into the cost of 
living in American towns. 

Professor Chapin's study of 318 typical families 
showed "that while the earnings of the father are the 
main dependence, the importance of additions from the 
earnings of others, and from lodgers, increases with 
the higher incomes." This was also shown by the Brit- 
ish report of a very much larger number of families. 
In other words, not only are the fathers' earnings insuffi- 
cient in most cases, but any increase in family income 
is more likely to be due to other sources of income 
than to his wages. The Chapin report showed that 
less than one-half of the 315 representative families 

18 J. C. Kennedy and others. Wages and Family Budgets in the Chicago 
Stockyards District, pp. 64-65. 



268 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

were able or willing to get along on the father's wages. 
A family income of above $700 or $800 was found 
to be obtainable as a rule only by taking lodgers or 
by putting mother and children to work. The principal 
facts in the Chapin report may be summarized statis- 
tically as follows :^^ 

SOURCES OF FAMILY INCOME IN 318 FAMILIES IN THE CHICAGO 
STOCKYARDS DISTRICT 



e Per cent, of family income from 






Income « £5 g^ | ^ .S« « u 

Geoup ^S^ ^^ S« £^ -g .g 

PM < W W J O 

$600- $699 .. 63.9 $650 94.0 2.3 2.8 0.9 

-00- 799 .. 50.6 748 89.5 4.8 5.2 0.5 

800- 899 .. 30.1 846 84.2 9.7 5.5 0.6 

900- 999 .. 54.0 942 85.0 11.4 3.1 0.5 

1,000-1,099 .. 25.8 1,044 81.7 11.6 5.8 0.9 

The relation of family income to the proportionate 
importance of the earnings of father, mother and chil- 
dren as sources of the family fund, taken in connec- 
tion with the size of the family, and family expendi- 
tures, as indicative of the standard of living, is of 
utmost importance. This relation is discust more in 
detail elsewhere, but in order to emphasize it in this 
connection a compilation of statistics for 3,215 work- 
ingmen's families, secured by the British Board of 
Trade, has been made. In order to employ statistics 
for a homogeneous group of families, only native 
(white) and British families in the northern states were 
selected from the report. The British families included 

»R. C. Chapin, Standard of Living in New York City, pp. 55 and 63. 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 269 

those whose heads were born in England, Ireland, Scot- 
land and Canada. Their standard of living and eco- 
nomic status has been found, as will be pointed out later 
in detail, to be similar. Very few of the families 
selected had boarders, thus eliminating from considera- 
tion income from that source, and confining the pic- 
ture to native white and similar families which main- 
tained a distinct and separate family life. For the 
most part the heads of the families were skilled 
workers. 

The necessity for supplementing the earnings of the 
father in order to allow a family income sufficient for 
subsistence and for comfort is clearly suggested by these 
statistics. Every study of the living conditions of 
workingmen's families in relation to earnings and fam- 
ily income has proven this to be true, but it is per- 
haps more clearly and concretely illustrated in the table 
on p. 270, compiled from the statistics referred to. 

From this table the following facts may be pointed 
out as significant: (i) The size of the family was 
found to be larger in proportion to the incomes of 
increasing size, and the increased size of the family 
was due almost entirely to the increased number of 
children. The average number of other persons living 
at home, including parents, was, according to income 
groups, as follows: 2, 2.08, 2.14, 2.25, 2.19, 2.28, 
2.18. (2) The proportion of the total income of the 
family contributed by the husband decreases after the 
income group of $24.33-$29.20 (average $26.10) is 
reached. The proportion contributed by children be- 



270 



CONDITIONS OF LABOR 



FAMILY INCOME, SOURCES OF FAMILY INCOME AND SIZE OF 
FAMILY IN 3,215 FAMILIES, 1909 «> 

Families reporting weekly income of 



/ — 






^ 


^ 


^ 


u 


^ 








k. 


v 


V 


4J 





<u 











TS 


ID 


-o 


nd 


"O 








"H 


c 


C 


c 


c 


fl 


> 




fO 


3 


p 


3 


3 


5 


3 







t>. 




TS 


-o 


•n 


TS 


13 


t3 




0\ 


tj 


c 


c 


c 


c 


c 


c 




^ 


C 


a t^ 


rt ro 


a 


rt t^ 


rt ro 


CO 






CS VO 


Tj- 


fO 


CM 





On 






« 


^"X 


§0; 


^s 


sa 


ss 


OS 


On 




j3 


*^.Hi- 


■«*<«■ 


Ov <«■ 


■•^ <«■ 


o\ <«• 


•* «9- 


06 




P 


o\ 






CM 


CM 


ro 


ro 




<«9- 


•69- 


w- 


«9- 


•W- 


««^ 


•««• 


Average weekly 


















income . . 


$8.76 


$12.42 


$13.99 


$21.51 


$26.10 


$31.38 


$36.12 


$50.33 


Average number 


















of children liv- 


















ing at home . . 


1.78 


2.06 


2.46 


2.88 


3.07 


3.63 


3.82 


4.20 


Average number 


















of persons at 


















home 


3.78 


4.08 


4.54 


5.02 


5.27 


5.82 


6.10 


6.38 


Average weekly 


















income: 


















Husband.. . .' 


8.16 


11.53 


15.16 


17.14 


19.11 


19.14 


19.98 


22.34 


Wife . . . . 


.26 


.25 


.29 


.27 


.55 


.20 


.44 


.36 


Children 


.19 


.41 


.91 


2.69 


4.40 


9.32 


11.72 


24.03 


Other sources 


.14 


.22 


.63 


1.40 


2.04 


2.62 


3.99 


3.60 



comes an important factor after an average income of 
$13.99 is reached, and is actually more than that con- 
tributed by the husband in families with weekly income 
of $50.33. The proportion of income contributed by 
the wife is inconsiderable, while that coming from other 
sources than earnings is usually less than one-tenth of 
the total income. 

The explanation of the increasing proportion of 
income contributed by children lies, of course, in their 
increasing age and in their employment, and to some 
extent to the increasing age of the father of the family 
as the higher income groups are reached. This may 
be seen in some additional figures which afford an indi- 
go Compiled from Digest of British Board of Trade Report on the Cost of 
Living in American Towns, Sen. Doc. 38, 62d Cong., 1st Sess., p. 42. The 
families included were native white and British-born in cities in northern states. 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 271 

cation of the age of the children and, therefore, of the 
parents : 

Average weekly income from children 







of the age of 


Total Average Weekly 


16'to 20 


21 years 


Income of Family 


years 


or over 


^.76 




$0.12 


12.42 


$0.23 


.07 


16.99 


.50 


.21 


21.51 


1.63 


.73 


26.10 


2.94 


1.18 


31.38 


4.98 


3.88 


36.13 


6.54 


4.56 


50.33 


9.75 


13.88 



The foregoing statistics may be said to picture a 
wage-earning family over a period of twenty-one or 
more years. The father's earnings increase consid- 
erably during the first nine or ten years, but main- 
tain a slower rate of increase afterward. After the 
first nine or ten years the children's earnings begin 
to figure, becoming an important factor after 16 years 
have passed and reaching a position of greater impor- 
tance than the father's earnings after 20 years or more. 
Had it not been for the earnings of the children the 
family income would thus have remained in the third 
income group shown in the accompanying table, at about 
$19.50 weekly. 

Expenditures of Wage-Working Families 
The fact that in so large a proportion of wage-work- 
ing families the earnings of the fathers are supplemented 
by income from other sources suggests a review of the 
available data relating to family expenditures as an expla- 
nation of the apparent necessity for additional income. 



2^2 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

Several important collections of family budgets of 
wage-earners have been made in the United States 
in the last fourteen years. From these the conclusion 
appears warrantable that the family of average size and 
of earnings within the predominant ranges of income 
disposes of its income in approximately the following 
manner at existing prices :^^ 

Per cent. 

Food 40 to 50 

Rent 17 to 20 

Clothing 12 to 15 

Fuel and lighting 4 to 8 

Sundries 10 to 17 

These approximations take into consideration the 

rise in prices of foods and in rents. They indicate 

the important fact that something like four-fifths 

of the family income must be spent for subsistence, 

clothing and shelter. For all of the other items of 

expenditure which contribute to the health, comfort 

and contentment of the family a comparatively small 

proportion of the family income is available. As an 

illustration ithe more detailed 'data obtained from an 

intensive study by the U. S. Bureau of Labor of the 

annual budgets of 2,567 workingmen's families may be 

presented. It should be kept in mind that these data 

were gathered in 1901, before the recent extraordinary 

21 The following reports and publications of budgetary investigations have 
been consulted, the year in which they were conducted being indicated: 

Chapin — The Standard of Living in New York City (1907); More — Wage- 
Earners' Budgets (1903-1905); Byington— Homestead; A Mill Town (1907- 
1908) ; New York State Conference of Charities and Correctives (published in 
Chapin, supj cit., 1907); U. S. Bureau of Labor — Woman and Child Wage- 
Earners, Vol. xix (1909); British Board of Trade — The Cost of Living in Ameri- 
can Towns (1909); Eighteenth Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labor on 
Cost of Living (1901); J. C. Kennedy and others — Wages and Family Budgets 
in the Chicago Stockyard District (1909-1910); Pittsburgh Associated Charities 
report (1910). 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 



273 



increase in food prices took place, and that the aver- 
age annual family income was $827, a sum somewhat 
higher than the average annual income of wage-earn- 
ers.^^ The following table is compiled from the results 
of this investigation: 

EXPENDITURES OF 2,567 WAGE-EARNERS' FAMILIES (AVERAGE 

INCOME, $827; AVERAGE SIZE, 5.31 PERSONS; TOTAL 

AVERAGE EXPENDITURES, $768) IN 1901 » 

Per cent, of Average expendi- 

families having tures of families 

Item of Expenditure expenditures having expendi- 

for tures for 

Food 100.0 $326.90 

Housing : 

Rent 80.8 122.92 

Mortgage : 

Principal 5.5 145.82 

Interest 7.9 53.73 

Fuel 99.9 32.24 

Lighting .. 100.0 8.15 

Clothing : 

Husband 98.1 34.38 

Wife .. .. 98.7 26.37 

Children 88.7 54.15 

Taxes 34.3 16.86 

Insurance : 

Property 31.4 4.89 

Life 65.8 29.55 

Organizations : 

Labor 36.7 10.52 

Other 43.7 11.84 

Religion 80.3 9.49 

Charity 51.0 4.68 

Furniture and utensils . . 84.5 ' 31.13 

Books and newspapers . . 94.7 8.82 

Amusements and vacations 70.3 17.44 

Intoxicating liquors . . . . 50.7 24.53 

Tobacco 79.2 13.80 

Sickness and death . . . . 76.7 26.78 

Other purposes 98.9 45.61 

" The Bureau of Labor considered these 2,567 families fairly representative 
of the 25,440 families for which less detailed information was obtained. The 
average annual family income of the larger group was $750. 

23 Compiled from Eighteenth Annual Report of the U. S. Commissioner of 

Lsbor. 



274 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

The actual situation as found to exist in 1901 by the 
Federal Bureau of Labor among 11,156 "normal" ^^ 
families in the principal industries and occupations 
having different ranges of annual income, showed 
that there were important variations in the proportions 
spent for the different items according to size of annual 
income, and suggest in a general way the inadequacy 
of incomes below certain ranges. It was found that 
the higher the income the lower were the proportions 
spent for food and fuel, the higher were the proportions 
spent for clothing and sundries, while the proportion 
spent for lighting was practically the same in families 
earning all ranges of income. It must be kept in mind 
that since this investigation was made the prices of 
food have increased to a large extent, and of some of 
the other items to a lesser extent, so that the percent- 
age spent for food — as later local budgetary studies 
have shown — has appreciably increased. The Bureau 
of Labor's 1901 investigation affords, however, the 
most comprehensive data, which are summarized in 
the tabulation at the top of p. 275. 

Similar conclusions were indicated by the later inves- 
tigation conducted in 28 American industrial locaHties 
by the British Board of Trade. Weekly budgets of 
several thousand wage-earners' families were obtained, 
and the data relating to expenditures for certain pur- 
poses were tabulated according to family incomes as 
follows (see table at bottom of p. 275) : 

2* By "normal" families is meant those in which there is a wage-earning 
father, a wife, and three children under 14 years of age, and no servants or 
dependents. 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 



275 



PER CENT. OF EXPENDITURE FOR VARIOUS PURPOSES IN 11,156 
NORMAL FAMILIES, BY CLASSIFIED INCOME 



Classified Income 




£ 


1 


bo 

c 
•z 


1 


bo 
.H 




u 

c 







« 


fa 


J 


fa 





C/3 


H 


Under $200 . . 




. 16.93 


6.69 


1.27 


50.85 


8.68 


15.58 


100.00 


$200 or under 


"'$300 




. 18.02 


6.09 


1.13 


47.33 


8.66 


18.77 


100.00 


300 or under 


400 




. 18.69 


5.97 


1.14 


48.09 


10.02 


16.09 


100.00 


400 or under 


500 




. 18.57 


5.54 


1.12 


46.88 


11.39 


16.50 


100.00 


500 or under 


600 




. 18.43 


5.09 


1.12 


46.16 


11.98 


17.22 


100.00 


600 or under 


700 




. 18.48 


4.65 


1.12 


43.48 


12.88 


19.39 


100.00 


700 or under 


800 




. 18.17 


4.14 


1.12 


41.44 


13.50 


21.63 


100.00 


800 or under 


900 




. 17.07 


3.87 


1.10 


41.37 


13.57 


23.02 


100.00 


900 or under 


1,000 




. 17.58 


3.85 


1.11 


39.90 


14.35 


23.21 


100.00 


1,000 or under 


1,100 




. 17.53 


3.77 


1.16 


38.79 


15.06 


23.69 


100.00 


1,100 or under 


1,200 




. 16.59 


3.63 


1.08 


37.68 


14.89 


26.13 


100.00 


1,200 or over 


• •• 




. 17.40 


3.85 
4.57 


1.18 
1.12 


36.45 
43.13 


15.72 
12.95 


25.40 
20,11 


100.00 


Total 






. 18.12 


100.00 



PER CENT. OF TOTAL FAMILY INCOME EXPENDED FOR MEAT, ALL 

FOOD, HENT, AND FOR FOOD AND RENT, IN 3,215 

FAMILIES IN 1909 25 

Families Reporting Weekly Incomes of 



! ""^ 


PO 




G 
3 


u 


G 
3 


3 


u 


^ 




1 

Items of 
Expenditures 




•0 

c 


C 
«9- 


T3 

c 

CO 

ON •««■ 
■69- 


C 

CS 
<M 

^^ 
■* -60- 

•&9- 


1. 

0\ -09- 


^3 

fO 
•&9- 


'a 
c 
ca 

«9- 


Meat 


12.95 


13.49 


12.22 


11.36 


10.50 


9.32 


10.23 


9.28 


All food . . . . 


51.39 


47.62 


44.15 


41.19 


37.88 


33.53 


34.49 


28.40 


Rent 


19.53 


17.74 


16.66 


15.34, 


14.04 


12.01 


12.04 


9.91 


Food and rent. . 


70.92 


65.36 


66.81 


56.53 


51.82 


47.59 


46.53 


38.31 


The above 


Statistics 


showed that in 


the families 


for 



which data were obtained: (i) the percentage of income 
spent for rent maintains a steady decrease as the income 
increases; (2) the percentage of income spent for all 
food maintains a steady increase until the average 
weekly income of $38.93 is reached, when it drops 

25 Compiled from Digest of British Board of Trade Report on the Cost of 
Living in American Towns, Sen. Doc. 38, 62d Cong., 1st Sess., p. 44. The 
families included were native white and British-born in cities in northern states. 



276 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

more sharply; (3) the percentage of income spent for 
meats, on the other hand, tends to decrease much more 
slowly than the percentage of income spent for rent 
and all foods. In fact, it actually shows an increase 
from the first to the second income group. The per 
cent, of income spent for all food shows a drop of 
23 per cent, in the highest income group, as compared 
with the lowest, while the figures for per cent, spent 
for meats show a drop of only T^.y per cent.^^ 

The importance of the earnings of children in the 
3,215 wage-earning families represented in the above 
data is a significant fact (see table on p. 270). Taken 
into consideration with the expenditures for food, and 
particularly for meat, the children's earnings may be 
said to be almost the sole means by which families 
having a weekly income of over $19 are able to raise 
their standard of diet in any considerable degree. The 
same is true, of course, for the other elements that 
make up their standard of living in general. 

These proportions have been found to vary accord- 
ing to the race, size and locality of the family as well 
as according to income. The proportion spent for 
food was found to be over 53 per cent, for the newer 
immigrant families of unskilled stockyard workers, for 
example, and less than 40 per cent, for families of 
highly skilled, better-paid native and older immigrant 
families. The results of various budgetary studies made 

26 The data bearing on the relation of family income to the character of diet 
of wage-working families and on geographical and other factors having apparent 
effects on their diet, have been summarized in a paper on "The Prevalence of 
Pellagra — Its Possible Relation to the Rise in Cost of Food," by Edgar Syden- 
Strieker, U. S. Public Health Reports, Reprint No. 308. 



IN "AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 277 

ill the United States show variations in the relation 
of food expenditures to total family expenditures as 
follows : 

The larger the size of the family, the income remain- 
ing constant, the greater is the per cent, spent for food. 
The per cent, expended for fuel and light remains 
without change, while comparatively smaller percentage 
for clothing, sundries and rent are shown. The larger 
the size of the family, the smaller is the per cent, 
of savings. It should be noted that taking wage- 
earners' families grouped according to the number 
of persons per family, the income increases somewhat 
in proportion to the greater size of the family. The 
increased income, however, is due to the earnings of 
the husband up to only a certain point; beyond that 
point the earnings of the children become more and 
more important, contributing practically the entire in- 
crease of income. The earnings of the children are 
thus the means by which the family is able to main- 
tain or better its standard of living, as illustrated by cer- 
tain facts as to its diet. 

While the data relating to racial or nationality differ- 
ences are of such nature as to require extreme caution 
in drawing conclusions, it seems to be clearly indicated 
that the native-born white American families spend 
a slightly smaller proportion for food than do the for- 
eign families of the older immigrant races (i.e., Scotch, 
Irish, English, German, etc.), and a considerably smaller 
proportion than the foreign families of the newer immi- 
grant nationalities (i.e., Italian, Austro-Hungarian, Rus- 



278 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

sian, etc.). The highest percentage of total expenditures 
spent on food by the newer immigrants is partly due 
to their low incomes, but even when they are com- 
pared with native white and older immigrant families 
in similar income groups, the same tendency is shown. 
The large proportion of the income of newer immi- 
grants saved or sent abroad, and their small expendi- 
tures for those things that are considered necessities 
according to the American standard of living, must 
also be taken into consideration. Negro wage-earners' 
families in the South were found to have the smallest 
food expenditures, in proportion to income, of all races. 
Food prices show a general tendency to be higher in 
the smaller industrial localities than in the larger popu- 
lation centers,^^ while they are found to be on a gen- 
erally higher level in New England and Southern than 
in Central and Middle West industrial localities.^^ These 
conditions, of course, have an effect on the make-up of 
the family budget of the wage-workers. 

Expenditures for rent have been found to vary not 
only according to the income of the family, but also 
according to locality and race. Racial habits and 
standards of living account for variations in expendi- 
tures for rent just as in the case of expenditures for 
food. According to the findings of the Immigration 

" Taking prices in New York City as 100, quotations of only predominant 
food consumed by wage-earners being used, the British Board of Trade found 
that the mean index was 102 and 103 for localities under 250,000 population 
and 96 and 98 for centers with over 250,000. Sup. cit., p. 35. 

28 A similar index number constructed by the same authority quoted above 
shows that food prices in New York City and other Eastern cities was 100, New 
England and Southern localities 103, and Central and Middle West localities 97 
and 95, respectively. 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 279 

Commission, a higher standard of living and a smaller 
degree of congestion in households the heads of which 
were born in the United States and Great Britain and 
Northern Europe, as compared with those of Southern 
and Eastern Europe, were clearly shown by the average 
rent payments monthly per capita according to race. 
For example: 



NATIVE AND OLDER IMMI- NEWER IMMIGRANT 

GRANT GROUP GROUP 

Monthly per capita Monthly per capita 

payment for rent payment for rent 

Race Race 

Native (white) . . $2.58 Bulgarian . . . . $0.97 

English 2.34 Croatian . . . . 1.09 

German 1.98 Macedonian .... .78 

Irish 1.97 Servian 1.03 

Scotch 2.41 Slovak 1.18 

Swedish 7.38 



Rent expenditures in over 13,000 households studied 
by agents of the Immigration Commission averaged 
$8.96 per apartment or house per month, the average for 
native-born (white) families being $11.55 ^^^ for for- 
eign-born $8.72. Anthracite coal miners paid $7.84; 
bituminous coal miners, $6.54; iron and steel workers, 
$7.51; copper mining and smelting workers, $6.21; cot- 
ton mill workers, $8.68; slaughtering and meat-packing 
workers, $8.90, and glass workers, $8.91. Clothing 
workers, on the other hand, paid $11.94; collar and cuff 
workers, $11.26; shoe workers, $12.63. These differ- 
ences exist not only because of the predominance of 
certain races In different industries, but because of the 
difference in the income of workers according to indus- 
try, and of the fact that rents are cheaper in certain 



28o CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

localities than in others. The smaller the industrial 
locality, as a general rule, the lower are rents.^^ 

Taking the results of other investigations of the liv- 
ing conditions of wage-working families into considera- 
tion, the general statement appears warranted that the 
average wage-earner's household pays between $9 and 
$10 a month for that type and size of house or apart- 
ment which seems to be predominant — the four- or five- 
room dwelling or apartment — or a housing expenditure 
of from $100 to $120 a year.^^ 

The rise in the cost of living can not have failed to 
have a most serious effect upon families whose incomes 
have not kept pace with the advance in prices. Even 
if it should be true that wages have kept pace and that 
the loss in working time is no greater than it was fif- 
teen years ago, the large proportion of wage-earners 
who are in the lower levels of income are much harder 
prest. A careful examination of all the available 
information gathered in the period 1901-1914 warrants 
the significant conclusion that the more recent budget- 
ary studies show a higher percentage of income spent 
for food than do the earlier studies in families in all 
ranges of annual income up to $900 or $1,000. In 

29 Taking rents of working-class homes in New York as 100, the British 
Board of Trade found the following ratio-: New York, 100; cities having over 
500,000 population, 78; 250,000 to 500,000, 78; 100,000 to 250,000, 69; tinder 
100,000, 64. Sup. cit., p. 26. 

30 There is an unusual degree of unanimity among investigators on the cost 
of rent. For example, the Immigration Commission's statistics for over 27,000 
representative households in industrial communities and in large cities showed 
that the cost per room per annum was slightly over $30. The British Board 
of Trade's inquiry into the cost of living in American towns and cities showed 
that the rent per room per annum from rent lists of 90,000 working-class dwell- 
ings and paid by 7,616 families whose budgets were obtained, was slightly over 
$33. These two investigations were made in 1909. Other special investigations 
strongly corroborate these conclusions. 



IN 'AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 281 

other words, the advance of over 60 per cent, in the 
average of retail prices of the principal articles of food 
constituting the diet of the workingman's family has 
resulted: (i) In a larger proportion of family income 
being spent for food and relatively less proportions 
being spent for fuel, light, clothing and sundries, and 
possibly for rent, altho rents have also increased, the 
increase in percentage for food being from about 43 to 
50; (2) in forcing the point of minimum subsistence 
much higher in the scale of incomes, from about $600 or 
$700 in 1 90 1 to $800 or $900 to-day. 

Since the proportion of income spent for food is 
greater in large families than in small families (being 
nearly 17 per cent, greater in the average family with 
five children than in the family with one child ),^^ the 
increase in food prices bears most heavily upon the 
workingman who has several children. 

'* Eighteenth Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labor, p. 98. 



282 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 



VII 

LIVING CONDITIONS 

The standard of living which the wage-working fam- 
ily is able to maintain is the true measure of the income 
it receives. The familiar distinction between "money" 
wages and "real" wages holds true, of course, for the 
family wage. The statistics of incomes and expendi- 
tures of wage-working families, reviewed in the preced- 
ing chapter, have perhaps suggested to the reader the 
extent to which these families are above or below the 
line of bankruptcy; they do not, however, depict the 
conditions under which wage-working families live, nor 
do they permit an accurate conception of the adequacy 
of wages and incomes of industrial workers to maintain 
decent and healthful standards of living, or to provide 
for comforts, educational and recreational facilities, or 
luxuries. In this chapter the attempt is made to present 
in summary form some of the salient facts relating to 
living conditions that have been collected by the more 
comprehensive investigations of recent years. In a sub- 
sequent chapter the adequacy of wages to maintain 
those conditions which have been fairly well agreed upon 
by various authorities and students as necessary and 
proper for decency, health, and a minimum of comfort, 
will be discust. 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES. 283 

It is impossible, of course, to present in digested 
form the large amount of descriptive literature relat- 
ing to living conditions of wage-workers in the United 
States which has appeared in the last few years. Those 
conditions, however, which have been reduced to sta- 
tistical form are capable of such presentation. From 
these have been selected the conditions which entail 
the greatest expenditure by wage-working families, 
such as diet and housing, and certain other conditions 
which are usually regarded as indicative of the standard 
of living, such as home owning, living arrangements, 
and general community environment. 

The Diet of Wage-Working Families 

A bare statement of the predominant articles com- 
posing the diet of wage-working families will, of course, 
not reveal any essential differences between their diet 
and the diet of families of other groups of the popula- 
tion. Thus an examination of the data afforded by 
several intensive budgetary studies of wage-working 
families merely indicates that their diet includes per- 
haps a relatively greater amount of the essential or 
necessary articles of food and less of those articles 
ordinarily classed as "luxuries." These studies have 
shown that approximately 70 or 75 per cent, of the diet 
of the average wage-earner's family is composed of the 
following (from the standpoint of both cost and 
quantity) : 

Fresh beef, fresh pork, ham, eggs, milk, peas and beans, 
comprising the principal protein foods; salt pork and 



284 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

bacon, butter and lard, comprising the principal fatty 
foods; wheat flour, baker's bread (wheaten), cornmeal, 
Irish potatoes, sweet potatoes, sugar, molasses and syrup, 
canned and green vegetables (other than beans and peas), 
and fruits, comprising the principal starch foods.^ 

The impossibility of making a statement of the "aver- 
age" diet of workingmen's families is apparent when 
it is remembered that important variations in the char- 
acter, variety and quantity of food arise from differ- 
ences in race, income, location and size of family. Per- 
haps the simplest way of summarizing the many de- 
tailed descriptions is to describe the diet of one group 
of families and to note the principal variations from 
that type. 

The intensive study of food expenditures and con- 
sumption among wage-earners' families made by the 
British Board of Trade in its inquiry into cost of living 
in American towns in 1909 affords the most detailed, 
as well as the most comprehensive, data. The follow- 
ing table shows the situation in one group of families 

» The most extensive and detailed budgetary study in the last few years in 
the United States, which was made by the British Board of Trade in 1909, 
shows that the per cent, of family income spent for the principal articles of 
food, taking all families together, was as follows: Meats, 12 to 16; eggs, 2; 
milk, 2.5; butter, 3.5; lard, 1.2; flour, 2.5; bread, 2; potatoes, 1.4; green vege- 
tables, 2.5; fruit, 2; coffee, 1.5. Of the expenditures for meat, 50 per cent, was 
spent for beef. The Bureau of Labor 1901 budgets show much the same propor- 
tion, but expenditures for beef were 40 per cent, of the total spent for meats. 
Other budgetary studies, altho stating results in less detail, tend to corroborate 
this general statement. The following is the list of 15 principal articles of 
food which has been used by the Department of Labor as the basis for noting 
price changes: Fresh beef (sirloin steak, round steak, rib roast) ; fresh hog 
products (pork chops); salt hog products (bacon, smoked; ham, smoked) ; poultry 
(hens); eggs, strictly fresh; milk, fresh; butter, creamery; lard, pure; sugar, 
granulated; flour and meal (wheat and corn flour); potatoes (Irish). 

The 18th Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labor, which contained 
the results of the budgetary investigation in 1901, showed that the 15 articles of 
food named above represented approximately two-thirds (63.97) per cent, of 
the average expenditure for food in workingmen's families in that year. 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 285 

— native (white) and British-born. The data were 
obtained from 532 families carefully selected as repre- 
sentative. These families had weekly incomes ranging 
from $9.73 to $14.60, averaging $12.42, and are typi- 
cal from the point of view of income. The average 
number of persons per family were 4.08, including 
an average of 2.06 children living at home. It should 
be remembered, of course, that the average family in 
this group was not found to consume all of these arti- 
cles of diet in a single week. The list merely indicates 
the relative importance of each article in the diets of 
all families in the group. ( See p. 286. ) 

With these statements as to predominant foods and 
this comparative description of a large group of repre- 
sentative families of a given race, location, size and 
income in mind, it is important to note some specific 
variations that are shown by recent budgetary studies. 
These variations are according to geographic location 
in the United States, to racial group, and to income. 
There is evidence also that the extraordinarily rapid 
rise in the prices of certain foods has caused changes 
in the diet of certain groups of famiHes.^ 

I. The principal differences in diet of wage-earners' 
families according to geographical divisions may be briefly 
summed up as follows : 

Beef, milk, bread and Irish potatoes are import- 
ant articles of diet in wage-earners' families in 
the North Atlantic States and Western States. Con- 

» See pp. 290 and 335. 



286 



CONDITIONS OF LABOR 



Articles of Food 

Bread, wheat lbs. 

Bread, rye " 

Bread, other " 

Flour, wheat " 

Flour, rye " 

Flour, buckwheat and other . . . . " 

Corn and cornmeal " 

Cakes, crackers and doughnuts . . " 

Rolls, buns and biscuits " 

Macaroni and spaghetti " 

Rice, barley and sago " 

Oatmeal and breakfast cereals . . '* 

Potatoes, Irish " 

Potatoes, sweet " 

Dried peas and beans 

Sweet corn 

Green vegetables, etc 

Canned vegetables, etc 

Beef, corned and fresh 

Mutton and lamb 

Pork (fresh and salt) 

Bacon, ham brawn 

Veal 

Sausage 

Poultry 

Fish 

Lard, suet, dripping 

Butter 

Oleomargarine 

Olive oil pints 

Cheese lbs. 

Milk, fresh quarts 

Milk, condensed lbs. 

Eggs number 

Tea lbs. 

Coffee " 

Cocoa and chocolate " 

Sugar " 

Molasses and syrup pints 

Vinegar, pickles and condiments . . 

Fruits and jams 

Other items 

Meals away from home 



Amount 




consumed 


Expenditure 


per week 


per week 


6.53 


$0.35 


.96 


.04 


.05 


a 


7.94 


.30 


.04 


a 


.26 


.01 


.68 


.02 


1.57 


.14 


1.37 


.09 


.42 


.03 


.67, 


.05 


.96 


.06 


17.43 


.34 


.43 


.01 


1.24 


.07 




.03 




.26 




.09 


5.09 


.75 


.69 


.11 


1.55 


.28 


1.26 


.21 


.46 


.07 


.51 


.06 


.30 


.05 


1.13 


.11 


1.16 


.15 


1.35 


.41 


.09 


.02 


.03 


.01 


.31 


.05 


3.75 


.33 


.71 


.08 


14.49 


.33 


.27 


.12 


.77 


.17 


.04 


.01 


3.78 


.21 


.33 


.03 


... 


.03 


... 


.18 


... 


.02 


... 


.07 



Total 



$5.91 



a Less than one cent. 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 2S7 

trasted with these are flour, meal, salt hog products, 
lard and sweet potatoes in the Southern States. Fish 
is an important article in the diet of wage-earners 
in the North Atlantic States, and fresh hog prod- 
ucts in Northern and Central States. Using groups 
of food as the basis, it has been found that the con- 
sumption of lean meats and other protein foods is high- 
est in the Northern States, and of fats and cereals in 
the Southern States, while a more evenly balanced diet 
of all three groups of food is found in the Central and 
Western States. 

2. The principal racial differences in diet are seen 
between two general groups of wage-earners: (a) the 
natives (white) and older immigrants (from Great Bri- 
tain and northern Europe), and (b) the newer immi- 
grants (from southern and eastern Europe). 

There is a marked similarity, generally speaking, in 
the diets of native American families and of English, 
Irish, Scotch, Welsh and German families. On the 
other hand, diets of native white families and of 
newer immigrant families (Italian, Russian and Aus- 
tro-Hungarian) exhibit marked differences in the fol- 
lowing respects: (a) The Russians and Austro-Hun- 
garians are large consumers of meats and of pro- 
tein foods in general, and smaller consumers of fats 
and cereals or starchy foods than native white families; 
(b) the Italians are smaller consumers of meats and 
larger consumers of cereals or starchy foods than native 
white families. Apparently their consumption of fats 



288 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

is very similar in quantity to that of native white 
families. 

It is significant to note that all newer immigrants 
spend a greater proportion of their total expenditures 
for food than do the native wage-earners. This seems 
to be due to the fact that their standard of living is 
less subject to the demands created by desires other 
than for food. In a sense, their standard is more ele- 
mental. They are more free to satisfy their natural, 
physical wants and less restricted than native wage- 
earners by the pressure of other wants upon their 
income. 

In the selection of their diet it seems to be the con- 
sensus of observations that the newer immigrant has 
the advantage over the native wage-earners. In the 
first place, his taste is less affected by the American 
standards of variety, just as the whole of his desire is 
less restricted. He does not demand as expensive a 
quality of food, nor does he desire as great a variety. 
He has been accustomed to cheap, coarse food. In 
the second place, his experience and his habits of con- 
sumption enable him to select the cheapest kinds of the 
foods he uses and to make the most of them. What 
effect continued residence in the United States has 
upon the diet of the immigrant has not been made 
the subject of any study so far. The fact that the 
diet of older immigrant races, the great majority of 
which have been in this country a long time, is so 
similar to the diet of natives, would indicate a ten- 
dency for the immigrants' diet to conform to that of 



IN 'AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 289 

the natives. The children of newer immigrant workers 
tend to have very much the same diet and general 
living standard as other natives. 

In the course of a community study of Johnstown, 
Pennsylvania, where several thousand newer immigrants 
were employed as steel workers, data as to the kinds 
of food consumed in a number of families and board- 
ing-house groups were secured. Magyars and Poles 
were noticeable for their consumption of cheap beef 
and pork, bread and coffee. The Slovaks and Croa- 
tians had more vegetables in their diet. Italians con- 
sumed comparatively small quantities of meat, but 
showed their distinctive habits of consuming large quan- 
tities of vegetables, spaghetti, bread and olive oil. The 
Austro-Hungarian workers, as a whole, in spite of 
high meat prices, made meat one of their chief articles 
of diet. Their standard of living in other respects was 
low, comforts and even ordinary provisions for de- 
cency were frequently lacking, and congested housing 
conditions were often marked, but sacrifices were made 
in order to satisfy their appetite for meat. Often, in 
reply to questions, their comment was that they had 
to eat meat in order to work. 

3. Of more importance are the variations in diet 
that are found in wage-earners' families having dif- 
ferent incomes and, therefore, different purchasing abili- 
ties. A careful examination of all the authoritative 
budgetary data indicates : First, the per capita or actual 
consumption of food shows two kinds of variations 
where an increasing range of income is considered, vk: 



290 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

in variety and quantity. Second, the greater the income 
the greater the variety of foods. This is seen in fami- 
lies of even low incomes, where a slight increase en- 
ables them to substitute bought bread and cakes, rolls, 
etc., for home-made bread. Third, up to a certain 
limit, the greater the income the greater the quantity. 
In this connection it is important to note: (a) that the 
greatest increase in quantity occurs in the lower income 
groups as the income rises. In other words, below a 
certain limit of income ($700 or $800 a year per 
family) the quantity of food purchaseable is apparently 
insufficient to satisfy physical wants; above that limit 
of income, physical needs may be satisfied as to actual 
quantity, but the desire for variety continues to increase 
the amount, but at a less rapid rate, at least a portion of 
which is not actually consumed but goes to waste; (b) 
that the main increase in quantity of food of fami- 
lies of low incomes is in response to the demand for 
meats. As corollaries, it seems proper to suggest that 
the quantity of meat purchaseable by famihes having 
the lower incomes is insufficient to satisfy the physical 
craving of the individual and that the prices of meat 
prevailing at the time the data was obtained prevented 
the individuals in these classes of families from having 
a balanced ration. Since the time at which these 
budgetary investigations were made (1907 and 1909) 
the prices of meats have shown considerable advances. 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 291 

Housing Conditions 

No general statement of the ''typical" dwellings of 
wage-earners can be made because of the lack of uni- 
formity in type and of the large variety of types of 
houses in different localities. It seems to be true, how- 
ever, that the predominant type of dwelling occupied 
by wage-earners in industrial communities is the single- 
family house.^ 

The single- family house is more uniformly the type 
in Southern localities, altho it is general in numerous 
small and middle-size communities in the East and 
Middle West. Even in some large cities, such as Phila- 
delphia, Baltimore, Pittsburgh and Detroit, the single- 
family house, it has been found, is distinctly predomi- 
nant, and is largely represented in Cleveland, Milwau- 
kee, Minneapolis and St. Paul. In the New England 
industrial localities three- family houses are most com- 
mon, while the two-family house is typical also of New 
England towns and of Brooklyn, Newark, Paterson, 
Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, Duluth, Minneapolis, 
St. Paul and St. Louis. The tenement housing from 
four to a dozen or twenty or more families is typical 
of New York and Chicago, altho it is to be found 
in almost every large city and frequently in the smaller 
industrial centers. In isolated mining and industrial 
communities the cheap "shack" of one or two rooms is 
a familiar type. 

The wage-earner's family is more likely to be found 

'This generalization is based upon the British Board of Trade's data for 
90,000 working-class dwellings in 27 American cities and towns and upon the 
result of numerous surveys and investigations. 



292 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

living in a four-room apartment or house than in an 
apartment or house of another size, according to the 
most comprehensive data.* 

The evidence seems to indicate conclusively that the 
size of the apartment or house is smaller in the large 
city than in the purely industrial community. The 
native (white) and older immigrant wage-earner's fam- 
ily in the latter type of locality occupies usually a five- 
or six-room house, while the newer immigrant house- 
hold is most frequently found in a three- or four-room 
house or apartment. 

The significance of these facts as to the type and 
size of house or apartment which the wage-earner's 
family occupies is that, taking the normal family of 
five persons — husband, wife and three children — as a 
natural standard, the typical dwelling occupied by it 
is none too large. A smaller house would be a dis- 
tinct deprivation of facilities not simply for ordinary 
comfort, but in many cases for health and decency. It 
is of the utmost importance, therefore, to take into 
consideration also the conditions of congestion and 
living arrangements which have been so frequently and 
graphically described in numerous housing surveys and 
investigations that they are familiar to every student 
of industrial conditions. 

Taking conditions in typical industrial localities as 

* The Immigration Commission's investigation of over 17,000 families in indus- 
trial localities shows that the average number of rooms was 4.34, and of 10,400 
families in large cities 3.70 rooms. The British Board of Trade data for 90,000 
working-class dwellings showed that the predominant types were four and five 
rooms. The British investigation included, however, perhaps a disproportionate 
number of highly paid workers. 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 293 

representative, the average number of persons per apart- 
ment or house in wage-earners' homes has been found 
to be nearly six persons, and the average number of 
rooms per family group is slightly over four, accord- 
ing to the best information available.^ There were thus 
about 1.30 persons to a room and 2.50 to a sleeping 
room. In nearly yy per cent, of over 17,000 house- 
holds in purely industrial cities there were found to be 
two or more persons to a sleeping room, in 37 per 
cent, there were found to be three or more persons, and 
in nearly 15 per cent, there were found to be four or 
more persons to a sleeping room. In nearly a third 
of these households every room except one was used 
for sleeping purposes and in about the same proportion 
every room except two were so used. Thus in nearly 
two-thirds of the households the family did not have 
more than two rooms available for exclusively other 
purposes than sleeping. 

Congestion is appreciably greater among the newer 
immigrant workers than among the native-born and 
older immigrants. This was clearly brought out by the 
investigations made by the Immigration Commission, 
from whose report the following tabulation gives sta- 
tistics for native-born households, and the households 
of the principal older and newer immigrant races. 
Not only do the newer immigrants live in smaller 
houses and apartments, and have a larger number of 
persons per room, but in nearly half of their house- 

^ These statements are based on data secured by the Federal Immigration 
for 17,141 households exclusive of congested districts in larger cities. 



!94 



CONDITIONS OF LABOR 



holds all but one room is used for sleeping purposes, 
thus making available only one room for cooking, eat- 
ing, and general living purposes : 





u 

°2 


"Si 

•2 ^ 


of house- 
ving 2 or 
rsons per 


•S.^2 


Vh o « 


Race of 


l1 


cent. 
Ids ha 
)re pe 
om 


cent. 
Ids us 
pt one 
:eping 




Household 
Head 


< 


IS 


,.ie 


O 4J^ 


fc o " o 

< 


Native (white) a 5.37 


yy 


2.6 


6.2 


.17 


English . . 


5.17 


.87 


3.9 


10.0 


.24 


German. . 


5.11 


1.02 


9.3 


11.5 


.51 


Scotch . . 


5.02 


1.08 


12.6 


10.4 


.13 


Irish.. .. 


5.37 


1.02 


4.9 


10.4 


.25 


Croatian. . 


4.01 


1.88 


43.8 


46.8 


3.80 


Hebrew .. 


3.94 


1.36 


21.6 


28.8 


.26 


S. Italian 


3.84 


1.47 


30.9 


45.7 


1.03 


N. Italian 


3.89 


1.42 


23.4 


41.7 


1.18 


Bulgarian 


2.41 


2.53 


78.4 c 


24.5 


1.01 


Magyar . . 


3.75 


1.72 


40.6 


50.2 


2.43 


Roumanian 


4.84 


2.57 


74.0 


54.5 


9.53 


Russian. . 


3.35 


1.77 


42.7 


64.0 


2.20 


Servian . . 


4.88 


1.97 


55.1 


56.5 


6.72 


Slovak .. 


3.62 


1.62 


36.8 


47.8 


1.16 


PoHsh . . 


3.82 


1.58 


33.9 


43.4 


1.46 



a Of native father. 

h Based on total number of households. 

c Not including 1 household not reporting number of rooms. 

Compiled from reports of the Immigration Commission, Vol. 19, pp. 153-163. 

These conditions were found by the Immigration 
Commission in the smaller industrial centers in manu- 
facturing and mining sections of the country. The 
same authority gives the results of an investigation of 
over io,ooo households in the congested districts of 
New York City, Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston, Cleve- 
land, Buffalo and Milwaukee. Here congestion may be 
expected in greater intensity, yet the investigation 



i 



IN 'AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 295 

showed conclusively that even in the worst sections it 
was not much worse than in the purely industrial cen- 
ters. The average number of persons per room was 
found to be only 1.34, and per sleeping room 2.32. The 
greatest overcrowding was in Boston, with 1.44 persons 
per room, and the lowest in Milwaukee, with 1.14, the 
ratio for other cities being as follows: Philadelphia, 
1.41; Cleveland, 1.40; New York, 1.39; Buffalo, 1.33, 
and Chicago, 1.26. A greater congestion was also 
found among new immigrant households than among 
native and older immigrants. Congestion is greatly 
aggravated by the prevalence of the system of keeping 
boarders or lodgers and of rooming groups, especially 
among the newer immigrant races in industrial com- 
munities. This condition will be referred to under the 
head of living arrangements. 

Living Arrangements 
That approximately a third of the workingmen's 
families in industrial localities and slightly less than 
that proportion of workingmen's families in large popu- 
lation centers are unable to maintain a separate family 
existence, appears to be a warrantable conclusion from 
a study of nearly 30,000 typical households.^ Among 
the families of native (white) American workers, the 
proportion is about 10 or 12 per cent., while among the 
newer immigrant households the proportion is very much 
greater. These are households composed either of fami- 

^ This estimate is based chiefly on the Federal Immigration Commission's 
investigation of over 27,000 households and on data obtained by several govern- 
mental and other inquiries and surveys. 



296 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

lies and boarders or lodgers, or of groups of single 
workers or workers separated from their families. A 
large number of wage-earners, of course, are adrift 
from their families. 

The character of the living arangements of wage- 
workers is determined by several important factors 
which do not ordinarily affect the living arrangements 
of the rest of the population. Chief among these is 
the permanency of residence. Any cause that results 
in the mobility of the labor supply, and in irregularity 
of employment and unemployment, is a factor of vital 
importance to the wage-worker's household. In per- 
manent industrial localities, where a labor force is more 
or less constantly maintained in connection with an 
established plant or plants, the tendency is toward the 
family group; in temporary localities, such as lumber, 
construction, or harvest camps, or in transportation, 
there is little opportunity for family life. 

Of equal importance, probably, is the conjugal con- 
dition of the workers, and the factors affecting mar- 
riage among them. Married workers having their fami- 
lies with them have "household" arrangements; unmar- 
ried male or female workers, or married male workers 
without their families with them, must either board or 
lodge with families, or live in boarding and lodging 
groups either of their own forming or conducted by 
others where no family is the nucleus. The "family 
household" is naturally found in permanent industrial 
communities; the non- family group systems exist chiefly 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 297 

in temporary camps, but are also found among the 
newer immigrant workers in permanent communities. 
Of great importance, too, is the factor of the economic 
status of the worker. The less he has to spend on 
subsistence, either voluntarily or otherwise, the larger 
are the groups, whether they be in family households 
or in non- family boarding and lodging establishments. 
The higher and more regular the wage, the greater is 
the tendency toward separate and distinct family life, 
except in the case of newer immigrants who do not 
expect to become permanent residents of this country 
and strive to save, even at the expense of decent and 
healthful standards of living. The lower the income 
the greater is the necessity for the family to add to 
it by taking boarders and lodgers and to destroy its 
unity of life. Finally, social habits and customs have 
much to do with living arrangements, for wide differ- 
ences are found among workers of different races. As 
the result of these factors, there are several deviations 
from the normal household arrangement where the 
family maintains an undisturbed unity of life, vis.: (i) 
Two or more families are found to occupy the same 
apartment or single house. (2) Families are com- 
pelled to admit boarders or lodgers, either (a) maintain- 
ing a distinct family economy to which boarders or 
lodgers merely contribute in board and rent payments, 
or (b) surrendering the family system of household 
management entirely and living in a cooperative or 
copartnership arrangement with the boarders or lodg- 



298 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

ers. (3) Rooming and boarding groups in which no 
family exists, but which are composed entirely of de- 
tached workers. The relative prevalence of the single- 
family household as well as of the other types of living 
arrangements are perhaps fairly indicated in the follow- 
ing tabulation: 









Per Cent. " 


■Family" 


Households 








With neither 


With 


boarders 


^ 








boarders nor 




or 














, lodgers 




lodgers 






'0, 




f — ' 




^ 


r 




"> 


a 




•0 

^1 




m 




Ih 

-s 


s 




^2 


h 




is 


a tn <u 




•r^ 


tc 




"e^ 





Nativity of Head 
OF Household 


a 

Ji 
'So 
c 
in 


Two or 
familie 
ing tog 


3 


H 


% 

% 




•£ c 
.t: 



H 






Native (white) 


. 1,866 


88 


1 


89 


8 


2 


10 


99 


1 


Foreign-born . . 


. 15,127 


62 


3 


65 


12 


20 


32 


97 


3 


Total 


. 17,141 


65 


2 


67 


11 


19 


30 


91 


3 



Compiled from reports of the Immigration Commission, Vol. 19, pp. 287-288. 

The above statistics for households having foreign- 
born heads do not, however, portray actual conditions 
because of the difference in living arrangements of older 
and newer immigrant workers. The older immigrant 
households (Scotch, English, Irish, German, Welsh, 
French, etc.) are of the same type as the native Ameri- 
can and should properly be included with the native- 
born workers. The type of living arrangements among 
workers of other races is indicated by the following 
statistics compiled from the reports of the Immigra- 
tion Commission for households of the principal newer 
immigrant races living in permanent manufacturing and 
mining localities: 



IN 'AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 299 

Race of Household Per cent, of all house- ' Average number of 

Head holds keeping board- boarders or lodgers 

ers or lodgers per household '' 

Croatian 59.5 6.39 

Hebrew 18.4 1.40 

South Italian 33.5 3.06 

North Italian 342 3A7 

Bulgarian 12.2 8.29 

Magyar 53.6 4.53 

Roumanian 77.8 12.23 

Russian 54.7 4.02 

Servian 92.8 725 

Slovak 36.0 3.22 

Polish 48.4 3.01 

The large proportion of newer immigrant households 
which keep boarders and lodgers, and the large average 
number of boarders and lodgers in these households, is 
due to a practise peculiar to households of the races 
named above. This is the "boarding boss system." 
Under this arrangement a married immigrant or his 
wife, or a single man, is the head of the household, 
which is composed of the members of the family of the 
head and from two to twenty or more boarders or 
lodgers. In some of these households the congestion 
is so great that half a dozen day-work men will occupy 
a sleeping room at night and another half dozen night- 
work men will occupy it during the day. This is due, 
of course, to the fact that a very large proportion of 
the immigrants of these races are males who are either 
single or who have left their wives in the "old country." 
This condition is set forth by the following statistics 
taken in consideration with the above tabulation: 

' Based on number of households keeping boarders and lodgers. 



300 



CONDITIONS OF LABOR 





"S^^ 




Per cent, of: 






i^ 


^°% 


Si 




1- o o 


n " 




J3 2 




mbe: 
or 1 
useh 


o 
o 


^^t 
'^.^'S 


l^ 




n o 


o ^ 


C O J3 


1§ 

•a to 


Race of Household 


« ^ ^ 


^:h^ 


en " 


lU 


Head 


l^l 


lis 




w .5 

13 ^ 




< 


^ 


1^ 


S 


Croatian . . . 


3.80 


58.1 


78.6 


59.3 


Hebrew . . . 


.26 


51.0 


82.0 


11.0 


S. Italian . . . 


1.03 


58.5 


70.9 


36.9 


N. Italian.. . 


1.18 


55.2 


78.4 


36.6 


Bulgarian . . 


1.01 


96.8 


74.2 


90.0 


Magyar . . . 


2.43 


58.2 


77.0 


43.3 


Roumanian 


9.53 


61.8 


76.4 


73.9 


Russian 


2.20 


57.0 


73.8 


45.5 


Servian . . . 


. 6.72 


69.9 


62.2 


64.5 


Slovak . . . 


1.16 


53.7 


87.4 


34.2 


Polish .. . 


1.46 


55.5 


73.5 


23.0 


The Americai 


1 type of f 


amily ho 


usehold arr 


ang^eme 



is so famihar that it does not need description here; 
it is mainly a question of the adequacy of the hus- 
band's or breadwinner's income to meet the family's ex- 
penses, and thus maintain its standard of living. The 
newer immigrant household, however, possesses these 
marked peculiarities, due not only to the inadequacy 
of a breadwinner's earnings to maintain a standard 
similar to that existing in native and older immigrant 
households, but also to racial habits and standards and 
to the desire to save money to be sent or taken abroad. 
The newer immigrant household is thus of two types: 
(i) The household conducted by a family with one or 
more children and boarders or lodgers, and (2) the 

8 Based on all households. 

" Including children. 

" Twenty years of age or over. 



IN "AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 301 

boarding or lodging group composed entirely o£ males, 
occasionally with a hired woman to do the housework. 
The large majority of women workers live with their 
families, either as wives or as daughters. It seems 
to be generally true that only in the larger cities is 
there any considerable proportion of them "adrift""; 
in the industrial towns they are contributors to fam- 
ily income or board and lodge at home, being either 
partially or wholly self-supporting. In some large cities 
the following proportions of women adrift, of the total 
number for whom data were secured, are given by the 
Federal Report on Woman and Child Wage-Earners ^^ : 

Per cent, of women workers 
"adrift" employed in 

A 

Q^Y Retail Factories, 

stores mills, etc. 

Boston 35.8 25.3 

Chicago 20.3 16.4 

Minneapolis and St. Paul 27.7 18.5 

New York .. .. 7.9 13.0 

Philadelphia 22.2 18.0 

St. Louis 21.0 21.6 

Total 26.2 15.2 

In those cases where women workers are members 
of their own families their living arrangements are 
those of the family or home, but among women "adrift" 
four types of living arrangements were found : 

(i) Those keeping house, composed of women who 
rent a house or tenement where they have their own 

" The term "adrift" was used by the Federal Woman and Child Wage- 
Earners' report to mean boarding and lodging women wage-earners as well as 
those whose so-called homes were "only impending wreckage." Vol. v, p. 12, 

"Vol. V, p. IS. 



302 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

private entrance and in which they Hve independently 
of other people. 

(2) Those living in private families as boarders or 
lodgers where not more than three outsiders Hve. 

(3) Those living in regular boarding or lodging 
houses where more than three outsiders live. 

(4) Those living in organized boarding houses 
financed by some social organization for philanthropic 
purposes. 

The distribution of "adrift" women workers, accord- 
ing to this classification, were found to differ consid- 
erably in the various cities named, as shown in the 
following table: 

Per cent, of total workers interviewed 





^ 




Living in 


Living in 






Living with 


boarding or 


organized 


City 


Keeping 


private 


lodging 


boarding 




house 


family 


houses 


houses ^3 


Boston . . . . 


14.6 


17.4 


56.6 


11.4 


Chicago . . . . 


4.6 


61.8 


27.7 


5.9 


Minneapolis and 










St. Paul 


2.4 


22.7 


58.3 


16.6 


New York . . 


40.8 


38.5 


1.6 


19.1 


Philadelphia . . 


24.6 


49.8 


25.6 


.... 


St. Louis . . . . 


15.3 


23.0 


47.4 


14.3 



Total .. .. 16.6 39.6 ZZ.7 10.1 

Ownership of Homes 

Approximately three- fourths of American-born wage- 
earners' families live in rented houses, according to 
most accurate general sources of information.^* 

" Number and per cent, not applicable to whole group of wage-earning women, 
as special canvass was made. 

" These statistics are based on the results of the Federal Immigration Com- 
mission's investigation and the British Board of Trade's inquiry into the cost 
of living in American towns in 1909, and such local data as are available. 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 303 

With the exception of English-born wage-earners, the 
percentage of home-owning heads of famiHes from 
northern Europe, including Ireland and Scotland, is 
considerably higher than for American-born, ranging 
from 30 to 70 per cent. Even the Croatian, North 
Italian, and Slovenian immigrants have a greater per- 
centage of home-owning heads of families than have 
the native-born white workers in industrial communi- 
ties. The most complete available data indicate that less 
than 15 per cent, of Greek, Hebrew, Portuguese, Ru- 
manian, Ruthenian, Russian, Servian, Syrian, South 
Italian and Magyar immigrant workers in industrial 
localities are home owners. With very few exceptions 
as to race, the great majority of workingmen's families 
in the United States are not owners of their own 
homes. 

In some older industrial localities where certain indus- 
tries have been long established and have not caused 
any very marked changes in the character of the supply 
of labor they employ, the percentage of home-owning 
workers is higher than this average, especially in locali- 
ties where there is a large proportion of better-paid 
skilled workers. In Brockton, Mass., for example, the 
number of wage-earners' families living in their own 
homes is unusually high.^^ In an industrial community 
in the Middle West, where the predominant industry is 
the manufacture of agricultural implements and of vehi- 
cles and where there are unusually strong inducements 
in wages for permanent residence, it was found that 

" British Board of Trade — Cost of Living in American Towns, p. 124. 



304 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

nearly half of the workers owned their homes.^^ On 
the other hand, in localities where there is a predomi- 
nance of unskilled, low-paid labor, and therefore of a 
shifting population, home ownership is comparatively 
rare. In Paterson, N. J., for example, it was found 
that only about a fifth of the silk workers' families 
owned their homes. Only 12 per cent, of the native 
American families were home-owners, and if the Dutch 
and German families be excepted, the home-owning 
percentage would be considerably lower than a fifth.^'^ 
Practically all of the textile-mill employees in Lawrence, 
Mass., were found to be living in rented tenements, 
according to an investigation by the Federal Bureau 
of Labor,^^ and the supply of detached houses was 
very small. Approximately 90 per cent, of the steel 
workers' families in the Birmingham, Ala., district were 
found to live in rented houses, altho the prevailing type 
of house was the single, detached variety.^^ In iso- 
lated mining communities and in communities where a 
single plant affords practically the entire demand for 
labor, the proportion of home-owning families is low 
since the houses are owned by the employer. There 
appears to be a marked tendency, however, for em- 
ployers to sell their company houses as fast as they can, 
but the employees who purchase are chiefly the better- 
paid skilled workers, whose permanency of residence 
is of distinct advantage to their employers. 

" Reports of the Immigration Commission, Vol. 14, p. 599. 

"Woman and Child Wage-Earners, Vol iv, p. 310. 

18 Report on Strike of Textile Workers in Lawrence, Mass., 1912, pp. 23-26. 

*» Reports of the Immigration Commission, Vol, 9, p. 232. 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 305 

In the large cities the percentage of home-owning 
workingmen's famiHes is much lower than in purely 
industrial localities. The Federal Immigration Com- 
mission's investigation of over 10,000 households in 
the congested districts of some large cities, disclosed 
the fact that only about one-tenth of the workers' 
families lived in their own homes. In New York tene- 
ment districts only one-half of i per cent, owned their 
homes, while in Milwaukee, where the tenement type of 
house is not so prevalent, about 19 per cent, were 
home-owners, and in Buffalo 17.5 per cent. Even in 
Chicago over 16 per cent, of the families investigated 
were found to be living in their own homes. On the 
other hand, only 4.4 per cent, were home-owners in 
Boston, and but 7.4 per cent, in Philadelphia, where 
the smaller house so largely prevails, had purchased 
homes. 

Community Environment 

That the wage-worker and his family live in a com- 
munity environment unmistakably less healthful and 
less attractive, more depressing, possessing fewer con- 
veniences, and beyond question worse from nearly 
every point of view, than the average citizen engaged 
in other pursuits, is a fact so well recognized as 
to need no elaboration here. With rare exceptions, 
the industrial worker does not enjoy the same public 
advantages and opportunities that are afforded to others. 
The old idea of class distinction persists to such an 
extent that this condition is accepted by the average 



3o6 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

citizen as a matter of course, and the belief unhappily 
still prevails that the wage-earner should take for 
granted that his expectations of even community bene- 
fits ought to be smaller than those of other individuals. 

The result is an unmistakable tendency toward the 
segregation of wage-earners from the other population in 
almost every locality where there is a considerable pro- 
portion not engaged in industrial occupations. In every 
city is to be found the "residential" section contrasted 
with the "working-class" section, — wards where the 
low-paid workers live — the "slums" and the tene- 
ments. Practically every investigation of the environ- 
ment of wage-earners has called attention to the lack 
of water and sewage facilities, unkempt streets, absence 
of paving, or other tardy public improvements, and the 
general contrast in appearance between those sections 
occupied by wage-earners' families and the so-called 
"residential" sections. In nearly every industrial com- 
munity whose population is composed almost entirely 
of wage-earners there is a marked difference between 
those streets on which the unskilled workers live and 
those on which the better-paid workers have their 
homes. Since the newer immigration has come so 
largely into the unskilled occupations, this difference is 
more plainly evident. Practically all industrial locali- 
ties now have their "little Italics" and their "Hungary 
hollows." 

There are two types of immigrant communities, both 
of which, in view of the extent to which the newer 
immigrant has entered into the population of industrial 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 307 

localities in the East and Middle West, are of extreme 
significance in connection with the general question of 
community environment. The first is the community 
which has affixt itself to already existing urban popu- 
lations. "Foreign communities of this character," ac- 
cording to the conclusions stated in a recent study of 
immigrants in industry ,^^ "are as numerous as the older 
industrial towns and centers of the country. The tex- 
tile manufacturing centers of New England and the 
Middle States, such as Fall River, Lowell and New 
Bedford, Massachusetts; Manchester, New Hampshire; 
Providence, Rhode Island, and Paterson, New Jersey; 
cities in which other industries are located, such as 
paper manufacturing in Holyoke and boot and shoe 
factories in Haverhill and Lynn, Massachusetts; hard- 
w^are, cutlery and jewelry, located in New Britain and 
Meriden, Connecticut; or leather finishing and curry- 
ing, as in Wilmington Delaware; clothing manufactur- 
ing, as in Rochester; collars and cuffs in Troy; hosiery 
and knit goods, as in Cohoes and Utica, New York; oil 
refining in Bayonne, New Jersey; or cities engaged in 
diversified manufacturing, as Passaic and Newark, New 
Jersey — all these have colonies or sections populated by 
recent immigrants. 

"The same condition of affairs is found in the iron 
and steel, glass, and other older manufacturing cities 
and towns of New York, Pennsylvania and the Middle 
West. As representative types in this class in connec- 
tion with the manufacture of glass, Tarentum, Penn- 

2" Jenks and Lauck, The Immigration Problem, 3d Edition, pp. 68-69. 



3o8 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

1 

sylvania; Morgantown, West Virginia, and Steuben- 

ville and Ross ford, Ohio, may be mentioned; and as 
typical iron and steel localities, Steelton and Johnstown, 
Pennsylvania; Youngstown, Ohio, and South Chicago 
and DeKalb, Illinois. Pittsburgh, or the Pittsburgh 
District, is practically made up of industrial towns or 
cities engaged in the manufacture of iron and steel, 
glass and allied products, each of which has an immi- 
grant colony or section composed of households of wage- 
earners of recent immigration." 

The other type is the more or less isolated com- 
munity which has grown up around a plant or a mine 
since the supply of newer immigrant labor has become 
available. It is a familiar type in the coal-producing 
areas of Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, Ala- 
bama, Ohio, Indiana, Colorado, and in the iron-ore and 
copper-mining districts of Minnesota and Michigan. It 
is found in connection with steel plants, glass manu- 
facture and other establishments located away from 
previously existing urban centers. 

In both of these modern types of industrial communi- 
ties the environment is in marked contrast to communi- 
ties populated by families engaged in non-industrial 
pursuits. The attractive environment is a rare excep- 
tion. A depressing absence of homelike neighborhoods, 
a general air of unkemptness and of public carelessness, 
the prevalence of a hideous sameness in houses that 
are built with as great a scorn of architectural art as 
is possible to conceive, the frequency of dirt and filth 
in the streets and alleys, the lack of trees and grass — 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 309 

these are some of the signs by which a 'Vorking-class 
town" or a "working-class section" is so easily recog- 
nizable as to have become typical of the community 
environment in which the wage-worker and his family 
must live, in spite of some notable reforms that are 
being made by some employers and municipalities. 

In accounting for these conditions of unfavorable 
environment the cause usually assigned is the differ- 
ence in the economic status of the wage-earning popu- 
lation and of the rest of the population of any com- 
munity. Healthful environment, attractive surround- 
ings and the possession of conveniences, it is commonly 
argued, are purchasable commodities. Generations of 
individuals unaccustomed to better conditions, it is 
alleged, have had their effect in removing the desire 
for them, and in establishing a lower standard of en- 
vironment just as they have established a low standard 
of living within the household. Undemocratic as this 
explanation of those differences in environment, which 
are under the control of the public, may seem, it must 
be accepted as true, at least in part. To a large degree, 
in spite of the more enlightened community spirit which 
has appeared in most non-industrial and in some indus- 
trial localities, conditions that ought to be provided by 
the community for all its citizens, regardless of their 
inequalities of economic status, are still available only 
to those who are able to purchase them and to secure 
them by individual influence, or through the collective 
power of '^influential citizens." 

There are two principal reasons for this condition 



3IO CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

of inequality. Both are social in their character rather 
than economic. One arises from a conception of prop- 
erty representation in the administration of municipal 
government. Because the wealthy citizen pays more 
taxes than the poor citizen it is assumed that he should 
enjoy a proportionately greater share of the public con- 
veniences and provisions for community well-being. 
Hence it is that the average industrial locality spends 
more on the "residential" streets and sections than on 
the "working-class" neighborhoods, that the sewers and 
water facilities are extended toward "poorer" sections 
last, and that provisions for the public health are often 
undertaken by municipalities, not so much because the 
workingmen and their families have a right to be safe- 
guarded, as for the purpose of "protecting" the "better 
class" from infection and contagion from their poorer 
neighbors. In other words, it is the exemplification in 
public administration of a class distinction, whatever 
may be the underlying causes that have established this 
distinction. 

The other may be termed the segregation of the 
wage-earners, particularly the unskilled and low-paid, 
from the community itself. This segregation is not 
simply a matter of location, which is also determined 
by the factors of rent, convenience to places of work, 
and the like, but is social (in its broad sense) and 
political. It is hardly necessary to enlarge on this often- 
observed condition, beyond pointing out that the influx 
into industry of the southern and eastern European im- 
migrants has greatly intensified it. Their low standards 



IN 'AMERICAN INDUSTRIE^ 311 

of culture and of living, their isolation from the native- 
born population because of their inability to speak 
English and to associate with their American neigh- 
bors, and the influence of their own racial and 
religious institutions, customs and habits in maintain- 
ing racial and denominational distinctions, are segregat- 
ing factors, augmented by an attitude of indiffer- 
ence and oftentimes prejudice on the part of the native- 
born population. There has thus grown up in almost 
every industrial locality east of the Mississippi River 
and north of the Ohio and Potomac rivers a more or 
less isolated immigrant section with institutions, cus- 
toms, businesses and standards of morals and living 
peculiar to the predominant race or races composing its 
population. The people of these sections have little or 
no voice in the community. As the Immigration Com- 
mission discovered, they are exploited not only by 
leaders of their own race, but by natives, and are re- 
garded as legitimate tools for unscrupulous ward-heelers 
in our politically backward municipalities. 

This segregation of the wage-earners, particularly the 
unskilled, low-paid worker, has meant nothing less than 
his disbarment from participation in the affairs of the 
community, politically and otherwise. He has been un- 
able to exercise, and has not known how to exercise, a 
voice in the matters that affect his own environment, 
and has been practically at the complete mercy of the 
rest of the local population of the community. In those 
isolated localities where the employer is the owner of all 
the property, and where there is no "public," he has been 



312 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

hardly less his own master. Even should he be disposed 
or moved to exercise his political rights, it has been 
found that more than often he has been intimidated by 
his employer or the local politicians who are in league 
with his employer. Unorganized and without bargain- 
ing power, unled except by those who seek to exploit 
him, and untrained and incapable of initiative, without 
the opportunity even if he knew how to grasp it, and so 
involved in the fight for a bare subsistence that he can 
not see beyond the end of a day, the average unskilled 
wage-worker is peculiarly the ward of the community in 
which he lives. The character of his environment de- 
pends almost entirely upon the democracy of spirit, 
humaneness of view, and civic standards of those who 
now rule the American industrial municipalities. 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 313 



VIII 

THE WAGE-EARNER'S HEALTH 

Among the most important and significant develop- 
ments of the last decade have been the evidences of a 
growing realization on the part of the economist as 
well as the physician and sanitarian, and of the em- 
ployer of labor as well as the labor leader and social 
worker, that the health of the wage-earner and his fam- 
ily is peculiarly involved in certain economic and social 
conditions. 

These conditions render the problem of disease pre- 
vention among wage-workers and their families more 
complex and difficult than among the population in 
general. Disease has been found to be incident to the 
demands made upon the worker's strength and vitality 
by certain occupations and working conditions. Irregu- 
lar employment has been discovered to impair the effi- 
ciency of workers, to result in worry and neurasthenia, 
and to intensify their economic disadvantage. Un- 
healthful conditions of living, such as inadequate 
and innutritions diet, insanitary and congested housing, 
and unfavorable community environment in industrial dis- 
tricts and localities, are suffered to a greater extent by the 
wage-working population than by other social or 



314 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

economic groups. The necessity for the employment of 
women under modern factory conditions, particularly of 
mothers, has been found to be distinctly prejudicial to their 
health as well as to the health of their children. Pov- 
erty and disease, according to abundant evidence only 
now being collected and stated in a scientific and con- 
vincing manner, are close partners. The maintenance 
of a healthful standard of living is possible only for 
those who have the financial means, as well as the 
knowledge, for the avoidance of the conditions, the 
environment, and the habits that cause ill health. In 
a broad, yet in a fundamental sense, health has been 
a luxury to the wage-earner because it has been a pur- 
chasable thing. 

The new conception of health as an economic "neces- 
sity'' for efficient work and living, has a significance so 
far-reaching as to be epochal in the history of social 
philosophy. Out of it have already appeared legislation 
for healthful housing, workmen's compensation laws, 
and a nation-wide movement for "safety first"; the in- 
telligent and scientific study of occupational disease haz- 
ards; physical examination and supervision of workers 
by employing establishments ; the installation of sanitary 
conveniences and safeguards in factories and employer- 
owned dwellings for workers ; and an unmistakable move- 
ment for governmental health-insurance of wage-earners. 
Of perhaps even greater significance than these is the 
growing tendency to displace charity treatment and 
relief of the poverty-ridden sick by scientific and well- 
organized prevention of disease and systematic methods 



IN 'AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 315 

for health promotion through cooperation of employ- 
ers and employees with public agencies. A definite stimu- 
lus to the collection of facts as to the causes of ill 
health among wage-earners is being given, and as the 
conditions are laid bare new directions for more effect- 
ive disease prevention are being pointed out. The fact 
that the national Public Health Service has undertaken 
the study of economic conditions in relation to health 
is a significant indication of the new point of view. 

To appreciate fully the condition of labor in Ameri- 
can industry one must be given a view of the factors 
that affect the physical efficiency and well-being of 
wage-earners and their families. Altho attention has 
been directed in a scientific manner only in recent years 
to the problem of the wage-earner's health, suffi- 
cient data have been obtained to indicate in a general 
way what these factors are and to measure, with an 
approximate degree of accuracy, their influence. It 
is the purpose in the following pages to present some 
of the more definite and authoritative of these data.^ 

The Prevalence of Sickness Among Wage-Earners 

An unemployment survey made by the Metropolitan 
Life Insurance Company in conjunction with the Bureau 
of Labor Statistics of the Federal Government, during 
19 1 5, and covering over a million wage-earners in 

*The material in this chapter is drawn largely from the collection of data 
relating to the health of wage-workers and their families made by B. S. Warren, 
Surgeon, and Edgar Sydenstricker, Public Health Statistician, United States 
Public Health Service, published in their recent bulletin on "Health Insurance — 
Its Relation to the Public Health." (United States Public Health Service: 
Public Health Bulletin No. 76, March, 1916, pp. 6-37.) 



3i6 CONDITIONS 01^ LABOR 

selected cities of the United States, developed the fact 
that II per cent, of the unemployment was caused by 
sickness or accident disability. Over i per cent. (1.2) 
of all the wage-earners canvassed were found to be 
unable to retain their employment on account of illness. 
This rate was very similar to the disability records of 
members of trade unions in the states of New York 
and Massachusetts, as furnished by unemployment 
reports for a series of years in each state.^ A sick- 
ness survey of 7,638 families during one week of Sep- 
tember, 1916, in Rochester, New York, made by the 
Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, afforded a more 
comprehensive and detailed picture of the extent of ill 
health among the industrial population of a single local- 
ity. Of the 34,490 persons in the families surveyed, 
798 were sick, or 2.3 per cent. The following tabula- 
tion classifies the sick persons by the extent of disabiHty 
and by sex : ^ 

Persons Males Females 

r ' » , ' s f ' ^ 

Per Per Per 

cent. cent. cent. 

Extent of Disability Number of Number of Number of 

total total total 

All classes 798 100.0 3S6 100.0 442 100.0 

Unable to work 661 82.8 297 83.4 364 82.4 

In bed 220 27.6 88 24.7 132 29.9 

At home 135 16.9 47 13.2 88 19.9 

In hospital 85 10.7 41 11.5 44 10.0 

Up and about 441 55.2 209 58.7 232 52,5 

Able to work 70 8.8 32 9,0 38 8.6 

Ability to work not specified . . 67 8.4 27 7.6 40 9.0 

2 A collection of some of the available statistics of disability has been made 
by B. S. Warren, Surgeon, and Edgar Sydenstricker, Public Health Statistician, 
United States Public Health Service, in a recent paper on "Statistics of Dis- 
ability" in the Public Health Reports of the United States Public Health Service 
for April 23, 1916. 

* A Community Sickness Survey of Rochester, New York, by Lee K, Frankel, 
Ph.D., Sixth Vice-President, and Louis K. Dublin, Ph.D., Statistician, of the 
Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. 



IN 'AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 317 

Over 19 per cent, of the sick persons were found to 
have been ill between one year and three years, and 
nearly 2y per cent, had been disabled by sickness for 
over three years. The annual loss in wages from sick- 
ness of male employees alone in Rochester was estimated 
on the basis of this survey to be nearly $1,300,000, in 
addition to the cost of medical care, drugs, nursing and 
the less measurable but probably greater cost of loss in 
efficiency and the effects on the families of disabled 
wage-earners. 

The Greater Prevalence of Disease Among Industrial 
Workers. — The constantly increasing mass of evidence 
on the question of national health, as well as of the 
health of local populations, points to the conclusion that 
the industrial worker is more subject to sickness and 
has a smaller chance of living the normal span of years 
than the worker in other pursuits and than other mem- 
bers of the population. It suggests that, as the result 
of these factors, the *'human scrap heap of industry" is 
not an imagined thing, but is a very real and constant 
loss of industrial efficiency and waste of life and 
health that ought to be prevented. 

Mortality statistics in the United States indicate 
that there is a marked difference in the prevalence of 
certain wasteful causes of death between occupied males 
in agricultural pursuits and in industrial trades and call- 
ings. A recent analysis of the mortality statistics of 
210,507 males engaged in 140 occupations in the regis- 
tration area of the United States exhibits in a striking 



3i8 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

manner the percentages for the year 1909, as follows : 

Percentage of all deaths 



Mortality Among Occupied Males In agricultural In 131 trades 

pursuits and callings 

Deaths from preventable causes ^. 27.4 43.0 

Deaths from degenerative diseases" 

(under 70 years of age) . . . . 26.5 Z\2 

Total deaths after 70 years of age 35.9 13.4 

These statistics indicate, as Dr. Hayhurst points out, 
that the agriculturist in the United States "stands a 
one-in- three chance of reaching old age (70 years), 
while the others' probability is but a little better than 
one in eight," and that "occupied persons, other than 
agriculturists, suffer an enormous mortality (figures 
show 74 per cent.) from well-recognized preventable 
and prematurely degenerative diseases." 

Mortality records obtained from entirely different 
sources by the Life Extension Institute in the United 
States furnish a striking corroboration of the above 

* E. R. Hayhurst, M. D. : The Prevalence of Occupational Factors in Dis- 
ease, American Journal of Public Health, Vol. 5 (June, 1915), p. 539. "Occupied 
Males" in the above table include professional callings, officials and proprietors, 
those engaged in domestic and personal services as well as workers in trade and 
transportation, manufacturing and mechanical pursuits, miners, quarrymen, etc., 
composing a total of 140 chief occupations, nine of which are agricultural. Only 
the registration area is included. As Wilbur points out {Am. Journ. Public 
Health, Dec, 1913, p. 1258), where another or previous occupation could have 
been a factor, it amounts to less than 1 per cent, of the cases. 

^ Deaths from "preventable causes" include typhoid fever, pulmonary tuber- 
culosis, pneumonia (under 70 years), alcohol, lead poisoning, other occupational 
poisonings, accidents and injuries, rheumatism, bronchitis, suicide, accidental 
poisonings, pleurisy and hernia. For rheumatism, bronchitis, pleurisy and 
hernia only such deaths as have occurred under 70 years are included. Ibid, 
p. 539, note. 

* Deaths from "degenerative diseases" include cancer, diabetes, apoplexy, 
heart disease, "other circulatory diseases" (4,858), asthma, cirrhosis of the 
liver "other liver diseases" (880), and Bright's Disease. There remain in the 
Census classification 27,105 deaths from peritonitis, appendicitis, "other respira- 
tory, digestive, nervous" and "all other causes," a large percentage of which 
were undoubtedly preventable or prematurely degenerative, but which are not 
taken into consideration in the classification given above. Ibid, p. 539, note. 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 319 

analysis of the Census registration area statistics. In 
a recent address, President E. E. Rittenhouse of the 
Life Extension Institute asserted that the mortahty 
records indicated a marked decline in the power of 
American workers to withstand the conditions of mod- 
ern life. This was manifested in the extraordinary 
increase in the death rate from the breaking down of 
the heart, arteries, kidneys, and the nervous and diges- 
tive systems, which diseases, he stated, are reaching 
down into middle life and apparently increasing there 
and at all ages. Of the 410,000 lives annually destroyed 
by these "old age" diseases, he pointed out, 60,000 occur 
under the age of 40; 105,000 occur between the ages of 
40 and 60, and 245,000 above the age of 60. Virtually 
all of these diseases, as Mr. Rittenhouse remarked, 
should come in the group above 60 years, and these 
slowly developing afflictions are not only reducing the 
working, productive period of life, but also lower the 
capacity of the individual, and are responsible in large 
measure for accidents, damaged machines, spoiled 
goods, and other costly errors. The records, he stated, 
show that in thirty years the mortality from these 
diseases has nearly doubled. In a group of over 5,000,- 
000 men and boy workers increases in the death rate 
were noted as follows: Apoplexy and nervous system, 
19 per cent. ; heart, 29 per cent. ; kidney and urinary 
system, 43 per cent.; liver and digestive system, 34 per 
cent. 

It is almost impossible to estimate the economic loss 
to the individual or to industry or to the nation of this 



320 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

greater prevalence of ill health among the industrial 
population. A number of estimates have been hazarded. 
The most recent, and perhaps the most conservative, of 
these estimates was that based upon the study of the 
records of nearly a million wage-earners and made 
for the Federal Commission on Industrial Relations.^ 
This estimate was that the average wage-earner loses 
about nine days on account of sickness every year. 
While the more complete statistics that are now being 
compiled may cause some revision of this estimate, it 
is interesting to note that it very nearly coincides with 
the German and English figures for over 26,000,000 
industrial workers, which show an average of eight to 
nine days of illness per year through a number of years. 
The same estimate, putting the daily wage at $2 and 
the cost of medical attention at $1 per day, places the 
annual loss to 30,000,000 wage-earners on account of 
the nine days of sickness at over $800,000,000. This 
leaves out of consideration the losses due to death and 
to decrease in efficiency which follows illness. It also 
leaves out of consideration the effect upon the family 
when the breadwinner is disabled. 

These figures, impressive as they are, but inadequately 
afford a true conception of the problem of sickness 
among wage-earners; they merely give an idea of its 
magnitude. To be properly appreciated they must be 
interpreted in terms of human suffering. "Any one 
living or moving among the lower grades of the wage- 
earners," to borrow the graphic language of Sidney 

^ Final Report of the Commission on Industrial Relations, 1915. 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 321 

and Beatrice Webb, ^'becomes only too painfully aware 
of the perpetual lack of health, and frequent disabling 
sickness all around him. He sees infants and children, 
men and women, alike suffering from what seems to 
be an unending round of ailments of one sort or 
another ... to be periodically broken into by 
serious disease, and cut short by premature death." * 
Sickness is so indissolubly bound up with the wage- 
worker's bad housing and poor and insufficient diet, the 
restriction of his natural desires for normal self-expres- 
sion, the worry, mental depression, discouragement, and 
destroyed efficiency that accompany impaired health and 
economic uncertainty and disadvantage, that it can not 
be comprehended fully by the presentation of cold sta- 
tistics. 

Among the more important economic factors which 
affect the health of the wage- working population may 
be mentioned the following: 

1. The occupational hazards of disease. 

2. Irregularity of employment. 

3. Unheal thful conditions of living. 

4. The employment of women, particularly married 
women, in industry under modern conditions of work. 

Occupational Disease Hazards 

There is no longer any doubt that conditions in mod- 
ern industry are responsible for a considerable propor- 
tion of the workingman's ill health. How far other 
conditions, such as character of diet and home and 

* The Prevention of Destitution, p. 16, 



322 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

community environment, are predisposing or aggravating 
factors in ''occupational" diseases, is impossible of exact 
determination. There are, however, certain specific 
substances and conditions in places of employment and 
certain conditions of employment which undoubtedly 
have harmful effects upon the health of many workers. 
These facts are becoming widely recognized in the 
enactment of legislation intended to decrease these 
health hazards. 

A large number of diseases have been traced more 
or less directly to the occupation. The tendency, how- 
ever, in recent years has been to define these diseases 
as "industrial" rather than as "occupational." For, as 
defined in a memorial to the President of the United 
States, by a committee of experts in 1910, industrial 
diseases are the "morbid results of occupational activity 
traceable to specific causes and labor conditions, and 
followed by more or less extended incapacity for 
work." * It is not practicable to give here a list of the 
industrial diseases or to enumerate the harmful sub- 
stances or conditions which cause them; but the follow- 
ing brief outline of a classification according to special 
causes suggests some idea of their extent and preva- 
lence:'' 

A. Workers in harmful substances: Metals, dusts, 
gases, vapors, and fumes. 

B. Workers under harmful conditions: Heat, mois- 
ture, cold, confined air (bad ventilation), overcrowding, 

^American Labor Legislation Review, Vol. i, No. 1, p. 125. 
"U. S. Public Health Service: Public Health Bulletin 76, p. 8. 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 323 

comprest air, excessive light, strains of muscles, nerves, 
or special senses, and the like. 

Harmful Substances: Metals, dusts, gases, vapors, 
and fumes. — The character and to some degree the ex- 
tent of the disease hazard caused by poisons, gases, 
fumes, dusts, etc., in certain occupations, have been 
shown in several important investigations made in recent 
years by the Federal and State Governments and in 
recent contributions to the literature on occupational 
diseases and hazards. ^^ Phosphorus, lead, mercury, and 
arsenic poisonings are but familiar examples; there are 
so many diseases that have been found to result from 
poisons which affect workers in scores of occupations 
that "there is scarcely any one line of modern manufac- 
ture which is free from the dangers of industrial poison- 
ing." '^ 

Harmful Conditions in Places of Employment. — In 
spite of the movement for better conditions in factories, 
stores, and mills, it appears from recent reports that a 

" Reference is especially made to the following literature on the subject of 
occupational diseases which treat of specific occupations and occupational hazards: 
Henry Japp: Caisson Disease and Its Prevention, Transactions of the Fifteenth 
International Congress on Hygiene and Demography, Vol. iii, Part II, p. 639; 
John B. Andrews: Phosphorus Poisoning in the Match Industry of the United 
States, U. S. Bureau of Labor Bulletin No. 86; Mrs. L. W. Bates: Mercury 
Poisoning in the Industries of New York City; C. T. Graham-Rogers: Ninth 
Annual Report of the New York Commissioner of Labor, Appendix II, pp. 68-91 
(calico print industry and potteries), and Tenth Annual Report of the New York 
Commissioner of Labor, Appendix II, pp. 62-111 (phosphorus match industry); 
Emery R. Hayhurst: Report of Illinois Commission on Occupational Diseases, 
1911, pp. 49-84 (investigation of brass manufacturing industry in Chicago); 
Alice Hamilton: White Lead Industry in the United States, U. S. Bureau of 
Labor Bulletin No. 95, pp. 189-259; Report on Investigations of the Lead 
Troubles in Illinois from the Hygienic Standpoint, in report of the Illinois Com- 
mission on Occupational Diseases, 1911, pp. 21-49; Lead Poisoning in the Smelt- 
ing and Refining of Lead, U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Bulletin No. 141. 

" I. M. Rubinow: Social Insurance, p. 212. See also Bulletins of the United 
States Bureau of Labor Statistics, Nos. 86 and 100, for groups of industrial 
poisons. 



324 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

very large proportion of the industrial establishments 
in this country are not free from unhygienic conditions. 
The report of the New York Factory Investigating 
Commission of its extensive examination of establish-, 
ments in the State of New York pointed out that while 
in many of the establishments the conditions were found 
to be excellent and the managements exercised a proper 
care over the health of their employees, ''unfortunately 
such model establishments and such enlightened employ- 
ers are in the minority," and "investigations in a 'great 
number of factories throughout the State have revealed 
much that is deplorable/^ The sanitary survey of the 
State of Louisiana, so far as its results have been 
published, indicated that over 50 per cent, of all of the 
establishments in the State were in "poor" or "bad" 
condition.^^" The recent survey of industrial health haz- 
ards in establishments in Ohio found that exposure 
to certain hazards classified as "bad," from the stand- 
point of sanitation and hygiene, existed in a very con- 
siderable proportion of establishments.^* The follow- 

^3 New York Factory Investigating Commission; Second Report, 1913, Val. 
ii, Report of Dr. George M. Price, Director of Investigation, p. 416. Dr. Price 
said: 

"Unfortunately, such model establishments and such enlightened employers 
are in the minority, as by far the greater number of employers have not yet 
awakened to the importance of improving conditions of labor. Investigations 
in a great number of factories throughout the State have revealed much that is 
deplorable. In the production of commodities, great economy must needs be 
practised as a matter of course. But there is a tendency on the part of many 
employers to economize not only in matters of legitimate expense, but also in 
space, light, air, and certain other safeguards to the health and lives of the 
workers. Such false economy inevitably injures the employer and imperils the 
health and lives of his employees." 

13a Louisiana State Board of Health; Quarterly Bulletin, Mar. 1, 1914. 

" E. R. Hayhurst, M. D, : A Survey of Industrial Health Hazards and Occu- 
pational Diseases in Ohio, Ohio State Board of Health, 1915, p. 118. Included 
in "infections," in the above recapitulation, are particularly the dangers from 
promiscuous spitting upon floors in work-places by persons who are employed 
without physical examination and who work without medical supervision (p. 119). 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 



325 



ing recapitulation of various health hazards shows the 
percentage of work places where the exposure was 
classified as "bad:" 





Per cent, of 


Per cent, of 




work places 


work places 




where ex- 


where ex- 


Specific Health 


posure to 


Specific Health posure to 


Hazard 


health 


Hazard health 




hazard 


hazard 




was found 


was found 




to be "bad" 


to be "bad" 


Dust 


16 


Heat 4 


Dirt 


21 


Cold 2 


Dampness.. 


1 


Infections ( c m - 


Darkness .. .. 


10 


municable diseases) 41 


Air 


18 


Poisons . . . . . . 19 



Sanitary surveys made for the Federal Commission 
on Industrial Relations by the United States Public 
Health Service in 10 typical industries in seven differ- 
ent States showed that conditions were about the same 
as those reported for New York, Louisiana, and Ohio.^^ 
These conditions are probably typical of most indus- 
trial localities in the United States, and would seem to 
indicate that much remains to be done before the 
industrial disease hazards due to these conditions are 
reduced to a minimum. 

Working Conditions Which Cause Excessive Fatigue. 
— In addition to industrial poisons and other insanitary 
conditions in places of work, there are certain condi- 
tions in modern industry which cause excessive fatigue. 
Among these may be mentioned long hours, the piece- 
work system, and the increasing use of machine meth- 
ods. Work performed by any of the body cells pro- 

*5 The 10 industries surveyed were in the following States: Massachusetts, 
New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Minnesota. U. S. 
Public Health Service: Public Health Bulletin No.. 76, p. 10, 



326 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

duces waste products and other changes in those cells. 
Up to a certain limit work, with the resulting cell 
changes, is beneficial and improves the physical condi- 
tion; but when work is excessive, too prolonged, or too 
fast, the waste products begin to accumulate, the cells 
become exhausted, the physiologic changes fail to occur, 
and if not properly rested the cells are damaged. 

It is becoming more and more clearly recognized 
that fatigue is a health hazard in industry. This is 
evidenced by a series of court decisions in the last 
few years upholding the constitutionality of laws pro- 
hibiting excessive hours of work for women in indus- 
try. The basis of these decisions was the effects of long 
hours upon health.^^ There is also a marked tendency 
on the part of employers to realize these effects " and 
to adopt a shorter working day and on the part of labor 
unions to insist upon an eight-hour day and a six-day- 
week standard. 

*8 The statement of Justice Ingraham of the Court of Appeals of New York, 
in the case of The People v. The Charles Schweinler Press explained in Bome 
detail the reason why the court reversed a former decision on a similar case. 
This reason was stated to be the fact that in the former decision no definite 
facts as to the effects of night work upon the health of women were presented, 
whereas in the latter case the court had before it the results of various investi- 
gations and opinions of medical and other experts. See also Supreme Court of 
the United States, October term, 1907, Curt Miller v. State of Oregon; Ritchie 
& Company v. Wayman, 244 Illinois, 509 (1910). For a review of judicial 
decisions dealing with hours of labor for adult men, see Bulletin of the New 
York State Department of Labor, No, 46, March, 1911, 

" An opinion as to these effects is seen in the report of the committee of 
stockholders of the United States Steel Corporation, consising of five prominent 
stockholders, submitted in April, 1912, which stated: "Whether viewed from 
the physical, social, or moral point of view, we believe that the seven-day week 
is detrimental to those engaged in it. , . , We are of the opinion that a 12- 
hour day of labor followed continuously by any group of men for any considerable 
(number of years means a decreasing of the efficiency and lessening of the vigor 
and virility of such men." Quoted from original report by the United States 
Department of Commerce and Labor in Report on Conditions of Employment in 
the Iron and Steel Industry, Vol. Ill, p. 161. (S. Doc. No. 110, 62d Cong., 
1st sess.) 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 327 

The overstrain incident to the piece-work system has 
been found by a number of investigations to be dele- 
terious to the workers' health. Dr. A. J. Lanza, who 
made several physical examinations of shovelers in the 
zinc mines of the Joplin district, Missouri, states: 

"They had shoveled from two to six years; some 
had started when 18 or 19 years of age. Now they 
could shovel only 35 or 40 cans, where formerly they 
could shovel 60 to 70 and upward. Hard, constant 
work had broken these men down, so that at the ages 
of 22 to 30 they were already on the down grade. . . . 
Working thus at their full earning capacity day in and 
day out, it is not surprizing that, with the added expos- 
ure to rock dust, these men should contract tuberculosis 
to an excessive degree. Especially must this be true 
when they start in while under age and before their 
bodies have fully developed." ^^ 

The physical examinations of garment workers in 
New York City conducted by the United States Public 
Health Service, showed that overstrain was more preva- 
lent in occupations where wages are paid on a piece 
basis than in occupations where wages are paid on a week 
or other time basis.^^ 

With the increased use of machinery another serious 
health hazard has appeared. This is the so-called "new 
strain" in modern industrial methods. In the opinion 

18 U, S. Bureau of Mines, Technical Paper lOS: Pulmonary Diseases Among 
Miners in the Joplin District, Missouri, and its Relation to Rock Dust in the 
Mines. A Preliminary Report, by A. J. Lanza and Edwin Higgins, 1915, pp. 
38-39. 

13 U. S. Public Health Service, Public Health Bulletin No. 71, May, 1915; 
Studies in Vocational Diseases — I. The Health of Garment Workers, by J. W. 
Schereschewsky, Surgeon U. S, Public Health Service, p. 79. 



328 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

of many observers and authorities,^*^ it is the fatiguing 
effects upon the worker of mechanical processes and of 
the increasingly mechanical character of his work. The 
effects of the greater speed made possible by machine 
methods are frequently aggravated by the speeding- 
up practises in many establishments. The extreme spe- 
cialization in the modern factory has resulted in a 
monotony of attention and muscular action that im- 
poses a condition of permanent strain upon one set of 
nerve centers or muscles. Noise and mechanical rhythm 
have been found to produce injurious effects upon the 
nervous system and special senses. 

These occupational hazards are causing disease; just 
how much, investigators have been unable to determine, 
but sufficient research has been made to know that they 
are prominent factors. The extent of their influence 
is indicated by the morbidity and mortality rates among 
workers according to occupation. 

Morbidity According to Occupation. — All records of 
morbidity according to occupation indicate that the 
health hazard is greater in some occupations than In 
others. Occupation is recognized as one of the three 
variables by life insurance companies in the United 
States in fixing their rates for health insurance; the 
other variables are age and sex. The records of Euro- 
pean sickness insurance societies and systems afford 
abundant evidence of the occupational differences in 
health hazard. Official records for 19 14 of the time 

20 Goldmark: Fatigue and Efficiency, Part I, pp. 43-89, and Part II, pp. 26-52. 
In this volume are collected much of the principal authoritative data from 
European, British, and American publications bearing on this point. 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 329 

lost on account of sickness by over 12,000 male office 
employees of the Federal Government in Washington 
show an average of 4.82 days. This rate is in sharp 
contrast to an average of 11.6 days lost during 1913 
on account of sickness by employees of a large rail- 
road system in the United States, whose occupations 
were very different from those of the Government em- 
ployees. Sickness statistics for 5,600 employees of a 
large steel company in Ohio illustrate the differences 
in health hazard, according to occupation, in a single 
establishment. The average of all its employees sick 
during a period of 38 months was 8.2 per cent., as 
compared with 2.37 per cent, of the electrical workers 
and 13.4 per cent, of the blast-furnace workers.^^ 

Mortality According to Occupation. — Occupational 
health hazards are indicated not only by statistics of 
morbidity, but also by statistics of mortality. The 
German and Austrian records already referred to fur- 

21 E. R. Hayhurst, M. D. : A Survey of Industrial Health Hazards and Occu- 
pational Diseases in Ohio, the Ohio State Board of Health, 1915, p. 58. 

The statistics for some of the principal occupations in this steel plant are sum- 
marized in the following tabulation. It should be noted that accidents and 
venereal diseases were excluded from the statistics of sickness, as well as all 
cases where the illness was less than a week in duration. Sanitary conditions 
in this plant were pronounced to be exceptionally good. 

AVERAGE PER CENT. OF EMPLOYEES OF A STEEL MILL SICK 

DURING A PERIOD OF THREE YEARS, 1911-1913, BY 

OCCUPATIONS: MALES 

Average Average 

Departments per cent. Departments per cent, 
sick sick 

Electrical 2.37 Pipe mill 9.18 

Bricklayers 3.66 Shelf mills 9.56 

Open hearth 4.81 Mechanical 10.09 

Yard labor 6.13 Blast furnaces .. .. 13.41 



330 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

nish ample evidence of greater mortality m certain 
occupations than in others. For the purpose of com- 
paring occupational health hazards the tuberculosis 
death rate is often used. It is probably the best single 
indicator we have for this purpose. The census mor- 
tality statistics for 1909 showed that for all occupations 
reported, tuberculosis caused 14.8 per cent, of all deaths 
among males, as compared with 6.6 per cent, of all 
deaths among farmers, planters, and overseers, 28.6 
per cent, among marble and stone cutters, and 29.2 per 
cent, among printers, lithographers, and pressmen. 
These statistics do not vary greatly from the actuarial 
experience of the Prudential Life Insurance Company,^^ 
as summarized in the tabulation on p. 331. 

Irregularity of Employment and Health 

The actual effects of irregular employment upon the 
health of workers, as observed by physicians and stu- 
dents of industrial conditions, are so familiar that they 
need not be discust here at any length. The very 
fact that the income of a worker is uncertain has 
been found to be a cause of impaired physical effi- 
ciency. The detailed examination of male garment 
workers in New York City, by Schereschewsky, afforded 
the basis for the following conclusion : ^^ 

"During the busy season the workers drive themselves 

» Frederick L, Hofifman : Industrial Accidents and Trade Diseases in the 
United States. Transactions of the Fifteenth International Congress on Hygiene 
and Demography, Washington, D. C, 1912, Vol. i. Part II, p. 802. 

''J. W. Schereschewsky: Some Physical Characteristics of Male Garment 
Workers of the Cloak and Suit Trades, Based Upon 2,107 Physical Examinations 
Made in New York, N. Y. American Journal of Public Health, July, 1915. 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 331 

PROPORTIONATE MORTALITY FROM TUBERCULOSIS OF THE 

LUNGS, 1907-1910, OF OCCUPIED MALES IN CERTAIN 

OCCUPATIONS, BY SPECIFIED AGE PERIODS. 

Per cent. 

Occupation 

All occupied males 

Farmers 

Tailors 

Carpenters 

Masons 

Bakers 

Iron and steel workers 

Painters 

Cigar makers 

Machinists 

Textile workers . . 

Bartenders 

Plumbers 

Glass workers .. .. 

Stone workers 

Clerks 

Printers 

at top Speed in order to earn as much money as possi- 
ble, to tide them over the slack seasons, while, during 
the dull periods, they are without sufficient occupation 
to keep up their interest. Such conditions are produc- 
tive of considerable mental stress, the worker during 
the busy season overdriving himself and spending the 
slack season in wondering if work will be forthcoming 
in the future. This condition of affairs is reflected 
in the relatively large number of operators found to be 
distinctly neurasthenic or of neurasthenic tendency." 

Similar conclusions were indicated by Schwab's in- 
vestigation of garment workers in St. Louis.^* 

** Sidney L. Schwab: Neurasthenia Among Garment Workers. American 
Labor Legislation Review (January, 1911), p. 27. 



15 years 


15 to 24 


25 to 44 


and over 


years 


years 


21.4 


34.3 


37.7 


9.9 


26.9 


32.1 


15.2 


52.0 


47.5 


15.6 


32.0 


38.4 


17.5 


31.1 


39.0 


19.2 


24.1 


37.2 


19.3 


27.9 


29.7 


23.3 


34.7 


39.2 


26.3 


54.8 


45.0 


27.0 


39.3 


40.0 


27.3 


38.6 


45.5 


30.7 


34.1 


35.7 


32.6 


32.8 


41.7 


32.9 


38.5 


48.1 


. 33.5 


33.3 


47.8 


35.5 


42.4 


44.8 


377 


48.4 


48.6 



332 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

The effects of irregular employment are not limited 
to the physical impairment caused by worry and periodic 
overdriving. The lessened opportunity to earn wages, 
caused by irregular employment or by physical dis- 
ability, means a smaller income and therefore a less- 
ened ability to maintain a healthful standard of living. 
The earnings of workers whose rates of pay would 
be adequate to provide for healthful conditions of living 
if they could work steadily, are often so reduced by 
irregular employment that a condition of poverty is 
the result. Data obtained in connection with the physi- 
cal examination of male garment workers in New York 
City, to which reference has just been made, clearly 
indicated *'that the greatest number of poorly nourished, 
anemic, tuberculous workers in an extremely seasonal 
industry were in that group composed of the lowest 
paid and the least regularly employed." ^** In many 
instances the unemployed worker is forced into a 
lower level of occupation. The unemployed worker 
is likely to take any job that he can get, in 
order to provide for the bare necessities of life, and 
the tendency is for him to drift into the "floating" 



2*a Health of Garment Workers — The Relation of Economic Status to 
Health. By B, S. Warren, Surgeon, and Edgar Sydenstricker, Public Health 
Statistician, U. S. Public Health Service, with an introduction by J. W. 
Schereschewsky, Surgeon, U. S. Public Health Service. Public Health Reports, 
May 26, 1916, p. 1305. (Reprint No. 341, p. 10.) "It is evident," say these 
authors, "that the competition among workers in this industry is great, and 
that a process of selection of those who work more regularly than others is 
continually in process. How far efficiency, as measured by physical condition 
of the worker, plays a part can not, of course be definitely stated. Nor can 
it be determined with any degree of exactness whether inefficiency is more 
of a cause than an .effect of the unemployment of any individual worker. 
The fact, however, is not without significance that the workers in the lowest 
income group were at the same time in poorer physical condition and were 
less regularly employed than the workers in the higher income groups." ^, 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 333 

or "casual" labor class. The casual laborers at the 
docks in New York City are composed largely of work- 
ers who have gradually lost their economic status in 
industry, and dock workers themselves continue to slip 
down in the industrial scale until they reach the class of 
''shenangoes,'^ the down-and-out longshoremen who are 
capable of only light work, and who finally become 
burdens upon public and private charity. According 
to testimony before the United States Commission on 
Industrial Relations, most of the 7,000 applicants for 
work at the San Francisco Cooperative Employment 
Bureau were of the casual labor class, and one-half 
of the total number of applicants were found to be 
incapacitated for work, on account of poor nutrition, 
disease, and exposure.^^ The records of many investi- 
gators of the unemployed abound with similar instances. 
Where the wage- worker is the breadwinner of a fam- 
ily, the loss of his earnings occasioned by irregular em- 
ployment, or by his drop into a poorer-paid occupation, 
can not but have serious effects upon the health of the 
family. Either the family is forced into that class 
whose income is insufficient to maintain a healthful 
standard of living, or the wife and children are com- 
pelled to become wage-earners in order to supplement 
the family income. Either of these conditions has 
serious consequences from the standpoint of health. 

25 Testimony of H. R. Bogart, secretary of the Associated Charities of San 
Francisco, before the United States Commission on Industrial Relations, public 
hearings on the seasonal labor problem in California. 



334 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

Unhealthful Living Conditions 

Under existing conditions, the reason for unhealthful 
modes of living is largely an economic one. Since these 
conditions have been found to be intimately connected 
with the incidence of disease, they constitute a factor in 
the problem of the wage-worker's health, whose sig- 
nificance is plainly evident. It is worth while to 
review some of the more significant facts, in order to 
illustrate this phase of the problem. 

Inadequate Diet. — The frequent lack of a properly 
balanced and adequate diet among wage-earners and 
their families is a factor entering into the problem of 
their health which has probably been noted by nearly 
every physician and health and charity worker. The 
recent findings of Goldberger^® show clearly that an 
unbalanced diet causes pellagra, a disease which is 
found more frequently among low-paid workers than 
among the well-to-do. Furthermore, while diet is not 
a specific factor in the causation of tuberculosis, as in 
pellagra, the undernourished prove easy victims to the 
tubercle bacillus. A committee of the American Asso- 
ciation for Labor Legislation stated : ^^ 

"With insufficient wages, food is cut down below the 
level of subsistence. In order to meet expenses for 
lodging and clothing, working women reduce their diet 
to the lowest possible point. Health inevitably suffers." 

28 See Public Health Reports of the U. S. Public Health Service, October and 
November, 1915. 

2^^ Constitutional amendments relating to labor legislation and brief in their 
defense, submitted to the constitutional convention of New York State, by a 
committee organized by the American Association for Labor Legislation, 1915. 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 335 

Nearly every investigation by minimum wage com- 
missions has shown that a very large proportion of the 
independent women workers in all sections of the coun- 
try are unable to provide enough food, and the right 
kind of food, on the wages they receive, and proper 
subsistence has been thoroughly established as one of 
the fundamental considerations in the fixing of mini- 
mum wages in a number of states. 

The effect of the rise in the prices of foods has 
undoubtedly tended to render it more difficult for the 
low paid wage- worker's family to obtain sufficient ani- 
mal protein food. Budgetary studies have shown that 
the smaller the family income the less is the relative 
importance of meat and other animal protein food in 
the diet. Statistics of food prices show that the in- 
crease in prices of meats and other animal protein 
foods has been over 50 per cent, greater than in the 
case of fats or starch foods since 1900. 

Bad Housing Conditions. — Unfavorable conditions 
prevailing in the household of wage-earners constitute 
another important phase of the problem in the environ- 
ment of the wage-working population. The absence 
of sufficient light; the lack of ventilation facilities or, 
when adequate facilities exist, the continuously closed 
rooms to secure warmth, because of the inability to pro- 
vide sufficient fuel; the accumulation of filth; the preva- 
lence of insanitary toilets; the necessity for overcrowd- 
ing, in order to reduce the rent to a figure which will 
permit the household to make ends meet — these are 
fairly familiar facts. 



336 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

It seems to be the general experience that most of 
these unhealthful conditions tend to be present where 
overcrowding exists, and the extent to which they pre- 
vail is perhaps best suggested by statistics of congestion 
among workingmen and their families.^^ It is apparent 
that in a household of six or more people living in less 
than four rooms, the conditions described by the term 
"bad housing" are likely to be found. 

European statistics on the relation of tuberculosis 
to congestion are confirmed by recent studies in New 
York City. A survey of the Washington street dis- 
trict ^^ showed that 57 per cent, of the families lived in 
two rooms and 26 per cent, in three rooms, many of 
these families having lodgers. The death rate from 
tuberculosis in this district in 19 13 was between 500 
and 600 per 100,000, or about four times the rate gen- 
erally prevalent. In one block in this district 63 cases 
of tuberculosis were found in 1913. Another study of 
217 working-class families in New York City reported 
almost unbelievable conditions. In his description and 
summary of this investigation, Fishberg said : ^^ 

"These families consisted of 1,369 persons, of whom 
1,129 lived at "home" in 717 rooms and slept in 658 
beds. That is about two to a bed and 1.57 to a room, 
including kitchens. Of the 274 tuberculous persons 
only 112 had separate rooms and only 138 had separate 

28 For data relating to congestion, see chapter on Living Conditions. 

29 A Survey of the Washington Street District of New York City, 1914, pp. 
56-57. 

so Maurice Fishberg: A Study of the Child in the Tuberculosis Milieu, Arch. 
Pediat., February, 1914. 



IN 'AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 337 

beds. Some consumptive mothers slept on chairs or 
on the kitchen floors." 

Depressing as this picture is, Fishberg's observation 
has been that such a state of affairs is not unusual in 
industrial centers in the United States. 

The bad conditions that prevail in lodging houses 
have been found to be peculiarly conducive to the 
spread of disease, particularly of tuberculosis. In 
nearly all industrial communities to which workers of the 
newer immigration have come, the boarding and lodg- 
ing house is a familiar institution. There the foreign 
laborers, who are unmarried, or who have left their 
families in their native land, crowd together. The fol- 
lowing description of lodging-house conditions in East 
Youngstown, Ohio, is believed to be typical ^^ of con- 
ditions in the immigrant districts of industrial com- 
munities : ^^ 

"By reason of the tendency of workmen of the same 
race to lodge in the same section or town, the lodging 
houses exhibited many instances of extreme overcrowd- 
ing. Thus, in one case, there were 23 lodgers in a 
four-room house, and it was by no means uncommon 
to find a single room occupied by from three to twelve 
workers. The lodgers, for the most part, slept two 
in a bed. In some of the lodging houses, where the men 

^ The reports of the Federal Immigration Commission (Vols. 8-20) contain a 
large number of community studies in which descriptions of the immigrant 
lodging houses appear that depict even worse conditions than shown in the 
above. 

32 United States Public Health Service: Public Health Reports, March 6, 
1914: A Report on the Prevalence of Trachoma among Steel-Mill Workers in 
East Youngstown, Ohio, by Surg. J. W. Schereschewsky, United States Public 
Health Service, pp. 565-566. 



33^ CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

work on both *day and night turns/ the occupation 
of the beds is almost continuous, the night men taking 
during the day the places of those sleeping at night 
in the beds. The beds themselves were usually old 
and in filthy condition, destitute of bed linen, the covers 
consisting of old bedquilts. The washing facilities con- 
sisted of buckets, or hand basins, which were used in 
common by all the occupants of a room. The houses 
themselves were for the most part built close together, 
so that the rooms were dark. Very few of the rooms 
were susceptible of thorough ventilation. Indeed, but 
little advantage would have been taken of such a pro- 
vision, as all windows were found carefully closed and 
the temperature was still further raised by small stoves." 
Effects of Unfavorable Community Environment 
Upon Health. — In determining the effects of community 
conditions upon health, it is difficult to state in exact 
figures just how much of the higher morbidity and 
mortality rates among the wage-working population 
is due to community environment and how much to 
other conditions. But it is clear that community en- 
vironment has direct detrimental effects on health. This 
is suggested by thie results of Dr. Antonio Stella's 
intensive study of six tenement blocks in New York 
City. There it was found that, while the death rate 
at that time for the city as a whole was 18.3 per thou- 
sand and 51.5 for children under five years of age, it 
varied in these particular blocks from 22.3 to 24.9 per 
thousand for all ages and from 59.2 to 92.2 per thou- 
sand for children under five years of age. An investi- 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 339 

gation of three "working-class" districts in Cleveland, 
one typical of the best community conditions, one of 
average conditions and one of the worst conditions, 
found that the tuberculosis rate per thousand in 19 12 
Vvas 35 for the w^orst, 23 for the average, and 5 for the 
best. The districts were rated according to the usual 
standards of sanitation. The findings of a committee 
of the American Iron and Steel Institute, which visited 
a number of industrial towns, are of special signifi- 
cance in this connection. Dr. Thomas Darlington, 
secretary of the welfare committee of the institute, 
in commenting upon these findings, said : ^^ 

"A study of the causes of death shows that, in gen- 
eral, but 4 per cent, die from old age, 4 per cent, more 
die from violence, and 92 per cent, die from disease. 
Of this last great group, nearly one-half are due to 
diseases of environment; that is, to diseases which 
. . . are wholly preventable. Taking 15 of the prin- 
cipal towns visited by the institute, excluding the large 
cities, the death rate averages 19 per 1,000 — easily 
double what it should be, and at least one-third more 
than the rate of some cities of larger size." 

The effect of unfavorable community conditions upon 
health and the extent of unhealthful community condi- 
tions have been pictured by an investigation in Johns- 
town, Pa., of infant mortality.^* As a previous Fed- 

33 "Health and Efficiency," an address delivered at the annual banquet of the 
American Iron and Steel Institute, held in New York City, May 17, 1912. 
Published in pamphlet form. 

3* U. S. Department of Labor, Children's Bureau: Infant Mortality: Results 
of a Field Study in Johnstown, Pa., based on births in one calendar year, by 
Emma Duke, 1915. See chapter on Relation of Infant Mortality to Environ- 
ment, Neighborhood Incidents, pp. 14-20. 



340 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

eral investigation had shown,^^ and as corroborated by 
the Children's Bureau's inquiry, the line between the 
sections of the locality occupied by wage-workers (com- 
posed chiefly of foreign-born workers and their fami- 
lies) and other sections, was very sharply drawn. The 
native sections, populated by skilled American work- 
ers, business men and others on a higher economic 
level, were ignorant of conditions prevailing in the 
working-class sections and, for the most part, indif- 
ferent to them except when they became "nuisances" 
or menaces to their own health. This indifference was 
markedly shown in the lack of community care of the 
poorer sections, where bad sewerage, insufficient water 
connections, and infrequent attention to streets, were 
prevalent characteristics. Infant mortality rates were 
ascertained according to wards of the city, and were 
found to vary from 50.0 to 200.0. In the distinctively 
workingmen's wards, where insanitary conditions were 
most prevalent, the infant mortality rates were found 
to range from 156.0 to 271.0. In the other wards, where 
sanitary conditions were noticeably better, the infant 
mortality rates ranged from 50.0 to 125.0, the average 
for the entire city being 134.0. An investigation into 
the milk supply of Johnstown, by the Federal Bureau 
of Animal Industry, in 1913, ascertained that the milk 
sold was "very poor," as shown by bacterial counts 
and inspection, and that the condition was due to the 

35 U, S. Immigration Commission Reports: Immigrants in Industries, Vol. 
viii, p. 436. Conditions as found in this community study by the Immigration 
Commission were stated to be practically the same by the Children's Bureau 
at the time of its investigation (U. S. Public Health Service: Public Health 
Bulletin 76, p. 27, note). 



IN 'AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 341 

total absence of municipal milk inspection. The city 
dairies, which supplied milk to the poorer sections, had 
an average score of only 26.84 out of a possible 100, 
and were described in the Bureau's report as "vile 
from a sanitary standpoint." On the other hand, the 
average scores for other sources of the milk supply, 
while unsatisfactory, were in every instance higher 
than the city dairies. Furthermore, it was found that 
the methods of distributing the milk from city dairies 
were particularly inadequate and dangerous, the milk 
was sold warm, and the purchasers rarely possest means 
of refrigeration in their homes. ^^ 

Johnstown has been found to be a typical industrial 
community in the Eastern section of the United States, 
and conditions of community environment there have 
been described by various authorities as fairly illus- 
trative of manufacturing localities ^'^ where the industrial 
development of the last twenty or thirty years, the 
coming in of large numbers of the newer immigrant 
races in response to the increased demand for unskilled 
labor, and the rapid growth of population, have out- 
stript the community's realization of the need for a 
corresponding development of public welfare provisions 
and administration. Along with the lack of proper 
community supervision of health, there were found to 

s« This report is published as Appendix III to the Federal Children's Bureau 
report on infant mortality referred to above. Since the report was made, a 
citizens' campaign for clean milk has been conducted with beneficial results. 
The unfavorable milk situation, however, existed at the times the Federal Immi- 
gration Commission and the Federal Children's Bureau made their investigations. 

" Jenks and Lauck: The Immigration Problem, 3d ed., p. 72. See also 
Reports of the U. S. Immigration Commission, Vol. viii, p. 237. 



342 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

exist insanitary and congested housing conditions, long 
and severe hours of labor, and a generally low level 
of family income for a great majority of the house- 
holds of wage-earners.^^ The high rate of mortality 
among the children of wage-workers is but one indica- 
tion of the extent of the sickness that sucH conditions 
cause among the wage-earning population, but it sug- 
gests the prevalence of ill health and the preventable 
deaths in the many industrial communities of which 
Johnstown is only a type. 

The Employment of Women 
The factor of sex renders the problem of the health 
of the wage-working population more acute and com- 
plex. In view of the generally accepted fact that in 
the population as a whole the female mortality rate is 
less than the male, it would seem reasonable to assume 
that, excluding confinements, the female morbidity rate 
is not greater than the male. Among women employed 
as wage- workers, however, these conditions are appar- 
ently reversed. 

Perry's statistics of cotton-mill operatives and sta- 
tistics of the Leipzig, Austrian, and Italian insurance 
funds show that the mortality rate of female wage- 
earners under 40 years of age is higher than that of 
male wage-earners in the same age group. Not until the 
age of 40 is passed does the usual excess of mortality 
among males assert itself. ^^ 

^^ Reports of the Immigration Commission, supra cit., pp. 329-490; also sec- 
tions of Children's Bureau report on Johnstown dealing with the economic 
status of the fathers of children included in its investigation, pp. 45-49. 

3' The following tabulation combines in brief form the statistics referred to 
above: 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 



343 



These statistics are corroborated by the Metropolitan 
Life Insurance Company's Sickness Survey of Roches- 
ter, N. Y., to which reference has been made, and by 
official records of sick leave taken by male and female 
government clerks in Washington, D. C. The Roches- 



EXCESS OF FEMALE OVER MALE DEATH RATE PER 100,000 
ACCORDING TO AGE GROUP 





1 








Is 












+^ H 












to rt 












.2 -»-> 




o 






•«3 


bOCO 






rfi 






en (Up 




5S 


13 
C 

3 


f3 


.« 


State 
Unit 
IS, 19 




1g 


&0 


c3 

'S 


fl 


^si 


Group 


§° 


3 


to 

< 


1i 


•a «o 


15-19 


.... 27 




440 




*58 


20-24 


.... 46 


33 

30 


420 
400 


320 I 
450 f 


*109 


25-29 


.... 353 




30-34 


. . . . 260 


109 


260 


*112 


35-39 


.. .. 590 


70 


160 


30 1 

80 r 




40-44 


.. .. 737 


*184 


*60 


*209 


45-49 




*400 


*490 


*270 ) 
*80 J 




50-54 


... 


*428 


*490 


*450 


55-59 


... 


*803 


*410 


*630 j. 




60-64 




*928 


*870 


*702 



* Denotes excess of male over female death rate. 

a Perry; supra cif., p. 75. The American cotton-mill workers' statistics 
indicate in this instance that the proportion of women over 25 years of age 
engaged in the mills is larger than the usual proportion of women wage-workers 
over that age in American or European industries in general. 

b Leipzig Local Sick Fund, statistics for 1887 to 1905, Twenty-Third Annual 
Report of the United States Commissioner of Labor: Workmen's Insurance and 
Compensation Systems in Europe, Vol. i, p. 1269. 

cThe age groups are "15^ to 20^," "over 20J^ to 25^," etc. See Amtliche 
Nachrichten betr. Unfall- und Krankenversicherung, 1893, and the Twenty-Third 
Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labor, sup. cit., p. 295. 

d Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Vol. Iv, London, 1892: Morbidity 
and Mortality according to Occupation, by Dr. Jacques Bertillon, quoting sta- 
tistics of the Statistical Office of Italy. See also Goldmark: Fatigue and Effi- 
ciency, Part II, p. 24. 

e L. I. Dublin, Statistician Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. : The Insur- 
ability of Women. An Address Before American Life Convention, Aug. 19, 
1913, p. 1. 

The differences in actual excess of female death rates in the statistics above 
may be due to differences in occupation and conditions of living. The fact of 
an excess, however, appears common to all countries. 



,344 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

ter survey tended to confirm the Austrian sickness 
insurance records on the point that sickness of women 
workers is greater than that of men workers, even if 
disability due to confinement is e:?^cluded. European 
statistics clearly indicate that women in the same occu- 
pations as men are sick not only more frequently, but 
for longer periods. 

While the greater health hazard to wage-earning 
women is admitted to be due primarily to the differ- 
ence in sex, other special conditions tend to increase 
the hazard to wage-earning women. Among these may 
be mentioned the precariousness of their employment 
and the additional work imposed by household duties. 
The precariousness of their employment is a constant 
spur to them to go beyond the limit of their strength, 
particularly where they are employed on piece-work. 
The household duties of wage-earning women, espe- 
cially of working mothers, impose double work. The 
workday of the wage-earning mother begins consid- 
erably earlier than the opening of the gates of the mill 
or factory or of the doors of the store in which she 
is employed, and is not ended when she comes home. 
She can not afford, even if she appreciates its impor- 
tance, to stay at home for a proper period of rest 
before and after confinement. 

Poverty and Disease 
It must be evident that underlying all the economic 
factors in the problem of the wage-workers' health 
that have been mentioned in the foregoing pages — the 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 345 

lack of freedom of choice of healthful places of living 
and of healthful occupations and places of work, the 
inadequacy and irregularity of the earnings of heads 
of workingmen's families and the necessity for the 
earning of wages by children and mothers — is the fact 
of poverty. These factors are but proximate causes. 
For if any one phase of the movement for better health 
which has recently taken so great hold upon popular 
attention is brought home to the individual, it is the 
fact that, under existing methods, disease prevention 
and health promotion are expensive. And, conversely, 
the most striking and fundamental fact that the inves- 
tigator of the conditions of disease has found is its 
great prevalence among those who are unable to pur- 
chase health. 

The conditions that cause disease are largely due to 
the lack of financial means for their removal. Even 
ignorance, that great obstacle to health, is, after all, a 
more intimate companion of poverty than of financial 
competence or of wealth. Except in so far as they 
are supplied by the public for the entire community or 
by employers for all their employees, the preventive 
methods that scientific research has given are largely 
unavailable for the poor unless the poor become pau- 
pers. Certainly the greatest benefits of modern medical 
and surgical science are beyond the reach of the low- 
paid worker and his family unless they place them- 
selves in the position of mendicants, and already the 
average physician is too heavily burdened with "charity 
patients." Bad housing, inadequate diet, child labor, the 



346 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

employment of mothers in mills, factories and stores, 
the uncertainty of family income, inability to pay for 
proper medical attendance and care, alcoholism, the 
restriction of the natural desires for normal self-expres- 
sion, discouragement and mental depression, physical 
deterioration, frequent or constant ill health — these are 
but results, so far as the poorly paid class of wage- 
workers and their famiHes are concerned, of their 
poverty. The worst housing conditions, the greatest 
degree of overcrowding, the most insanitary environ- 
ment, the most innutritious and impure food, the most 
wretched surroundings, are suffered by those who can 
not afford better conditions of living because the worst 
conditions are the cheapest. And the least efficient 
workers and weakest individuals are the ones to whom 
there is no choice but the most dangerous places in 
which to live and attempt to rear their already handi- 
capped children. 

In all countries the partnership of poverty and dis- 
ease has been seen.^^ Strikingly positive statistics have 
just been published on the relation of the physical con- 
dition of male workers in the cloak, suit, and skirt 
industry in New York City to their economic status. 
While a careful inquiry into the effects of occupation 
upon the health of these workers indicated that "no 
vocational diseases peculiar to garment workers" ex- 

*<> Levasseur found that the death rate in. the poorer sections of Paris was 
31.3, as contrasted with 16.2 for "middle" class sections and 13.4 in the 
richest sections. Rowntree, in his study of York, England, using a similar 
classification of sections of the city, found that the death rate in the "poorest" 
section was 27.8, in the "middle" class section 20.7, and in the "highest" 13.5. 
La Population Francaise, 1889-1902, Vol. ii, p. 403. B. S. Rowntree: Poverty; 
A Study in Town Life, 1902, p. 205. 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 347 

isted (aside from the general effects of sedentary occu- 
pations), marked differences were found between the 
physical condition of workers in higher income groups 
and that of workers in the lower income groups. The 
results of such an analysis of the statistics of physical 
condition are summarized in the following table : *^ 

HEALTH AND INCOME OF MALE GARMENT WORKERS 

Per cent. 



Annual Earnings ^^^^ nouHshed ^^^^^^ Tuberculous 

Under $500 372 25.00 9.94 5.64 

$500-$699 566 15.02 5.65 5.30 

$700 and over .... 456 12.72 4.42 .44 

All of the workers included in the foregoing statis- 
tics were heads of families, and it is extremely inter- 
esting to note that the per cent, of mortality among 
their children was 11.65 in the highest income group as 
contrasted with 20.69 i" the lowest income group. 
This difference in the child mortality rate closely corro- 
borates the results of several studies of infant mor- 
tality. The recent investigations of the Federal Chil- 
dren's Bureau, to which references have already been 
made, into the mortality of infants in families 
of all economic strata, found that those families 
whose income was insufficient to provide for adequate 
subsistence and healthful conditions of living showed a 
much higher infant mortality rate than families with 
adequate income. In Johnstown, Pa., the general infant 

^ Health of Garment Workers — The Relation of Economic Status to Health. 
Sup. cit.. pp. 1303-1304 (Reprint No. 341, pp. 5-9). The Talquist scale was 
used in making determinations of anemia, all workers with hemoglobin per- 
centages under 80 being classed as anemic. 



348 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

mortality rate was 134.7, but in families where the 
father earned less than $521 a year, or less than $10 
a week, the infant mortality rate was 255.7. This rate 
was three times as high as in families where the father 
earned $1,200 a year or more/^ In Montclair, N. J., 
it was found that the infant mortality rate in families 
where the income was less than $12 a week was more 
than twice as high as in families where the income was 
$23 or more a week. An investigation of infant mor- 
tality in Fall River, Mass., showed that a higher rate 
was prevalent in the families of the low-paid textile 
workers than in other families.^^ The exact prevalence 
of sickness, as indicated by mortality rates, whether it 
be two persons sick for each death, as Farr estimated,** 
or some other ratio, is of less importance than the gen- 
erally accepted fact, as illustrated by the foregoing sta- 
tistics, that sickness and death occur more frequently 
in families with insufficient income than in families 
with adequate subsistence. This can be interpreted in 
but one way, that the hazard of disease and the effects 
of ill health are much greater among those who are 
the least able to guard against disease and to provide 
for the cost of sickness. 

*2 Supra cit., p. 45. 

*3 Louis I. Dublin: Infant Mortality in Fall River, Mass. — A Survey of 
the Mortality Among 833 Infants Born in June, July and August, 1913. Ameri- 
can Statistical Association Publications, xi"., pp. 505-520. Mr. Dublin says: 
"The literature, and especially the German, is replete with trustworthy referen- 
ces to the strong positive correlation between low family income and high infant 
mortality. For it is the factor of income which determines the number of rooms 
occupied, their location in the city, the amount and character of the food, 
the need for supplementary work by the mother outside the home, and other 
considerations which bear directly upon infant mortality (p. 518)." 

** William Farr: Vital Statistics. Farr estimated that to one annual death 
two persons are continually suffering from severe illness and three persons are 
ill enough to require some medical relief (pp. 512-513). 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 349 

In no instance, perhaps, has this condition been more 
clearly and forcibly illustrated than in the campaign 
against tuberculosis. Poverty has been found, under 
existing methods of prevention and medical care, to be 
the most formidable obstacle. The handicap of insani- 
tary environment and congested living conditions in the 
homes and lodging places of the low-paid wage-earn- 
ers, to which reference has already been made, is one 
which it seems almost impossible to overcome with 
present weapons. To this is added the further handicap 
that the individual who must live under such conditions 
and be exposed to extraordinary hazards of contagion 
is usually weakened by the lack of adequate diet, strain 
from overwork or worry from irregular work, the effects 
of bad air and alcoholism, and his power of resistance 
is diminished. His chances of escaping or throwing 
off the disease are slight in comparison with the chances 
of the individual who is financially able to live in more 
favorable surroundings and to maintain his physical vigor. 
Unless he becomes a recipient of public or private char- 
ity, he stands a very small chance of being able to 
receive proper treatment after he has contracted tuber- 
culosis. The children of the low-paid workers are very 
likely to have for their heritage not only physiologic 
poverty, but also the financial poverty that goes with 
their physiologic handicap. Aside from the chances of 
postnatal infection from tuberculous mothers, the chil- 
dren of tuberculous parents inherit a general weakness 
and diminished resistance, and when placed in a tuber- 
culous environment, have been found to contract the 



350 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

disease very easily. But tuberculous parents are not 
the only reason for the physiologic poverty of children. 
"A badly nourished mother or father, living and work- 
ing under insanitary conditions, overworked and under- 
fed, will as surely transmit a physiologic poverty to 
their offspring as any tuberculous parent," is Knopf's 
statement of the relationship of poverty to the disease. 
"A general debility of either one or both parents, espe- 
cially when it is added to an insufficient income to sup- 
port the family so that there is want of food, clothing, 
or proper housing, is sure to result in the physiologic 
poverty of children." *^ And to these conditions should 
be added, as Knopf points out, that in large famiHes 
of the poor it is usually the later children who contract 
tuberculosis most easily, not only because the parents 
are less vigorous, but because the pressure of subsist- 
ence is greater and the necessity for living in cheaper 
and less healthful surroundings is intensified. 

These observations, which have been made by num- 
bers of physicians and tuberculosis workers, are sub- 
stantiated by all authoritative statistics on the relation 
of poverty to tuberculosis. The Charity Organization 
Society of New York City found that in one winter, 
of 2,200 destitute families investigated, 35 per cent, 
were found to be destitute on account of tuberculosis 
and 25 per cent, on account of other diseases. The 
experience of the New York Society for Improving the 



<5 S. A. Knopf, M, D. : Tuberculosis as a Cause and Result of Poverty. A 
paper read before the American Medical Association, June, 1914. Journal of 
the American Medical Association, Ixiii, pp. 1720-1721 (November, 1914). 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 351 

Conditions of the Poor has been similar. "The result 
of the low wage, insufficient to supply the food, clothing 
and shelter necessary to healthful existence, undoubt- 
edly meant that the bodies of the men, women and 
children were exposed to diseases that especially prey 
on underfed, poorly clothed and badly housed people,'' 
said the report of the Society's family welfare depart- 
ment; "tuberculosis cut short the lives of 40 per 
cent, of these men." ^^ The work of the home hospital 
experiment of the Society definitely recognized poverty 
as one of the conditions which had to be eradicated 
before the spread of the disease within a family could 
be checked. "Every family which has entered the hos- 
pital during the last two years was forced into poverty 
by the disease," says the Society's report, "some being 
partially dependent, others wholly destitute. To treat 
the social ills, therefore, has been quite as important 
as to cure the disease, for without rehabilitation the 
family would continue to live an abnormal life, econom- 
ically and socially, and consequently the disease would 
be more liable to occur." *^ Two years of this experi- 
ment, during which a large number of entire families 
have been treated, have shown that "with these three 
items — a decent home, an adequate budget, and proper 
supervision — families afflicted with the ills flowing from 
tuberculosis and poverty can be rehabilitated." ^^ 

*«W. H. Matthews: Report of the Director of the Department of Family 
Welfare, New York Society for Improving the Condition of the Poor, 1914. 

" Poverty and Tuberculosis, Two Years of the Home Hospital Experiment, 
1912-1914. Publication No. 84, New York Society for Improving the Condition 
of the Poor, p. 33. 

" Ibid, p. 5. 



352 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

But poverty is not merely a cause of sickness; it is 
also a result of sickness. "We are apt to forget," is 
the reminder made by Sidney and Beatrice Webb in 
their recent book "Prevention of Destitution," "that, 
in all countries, at all ages, it is sickness to which 
the greatest bulk of destitution is immediately due." ** 
The British Royal Commission, in its report on poverty 
in the United Kingdom, announced as its conclusion 
that "at least from 55 to 60 per cent, of the poverty 
in Great Britain is due to one cause — sickness." Sick- 
ness is in itself the contributing cause of so many ele- 
ments in destitution that it is hard to separate it as a 
distinct factor, for the inability to grasp or retain the 
opportunity to be employed may have for its first cause 
an illness or weakened physical efficiency due to ill 
health. In 5,000 destitute families coming under the 
observation of the Charity Organization Society in 
New York City, sickness was found to be incident to 
about three- fourths of the cases.^*^ More extensive and 
exact data are afforded in a study of the causes of 
destitution in 43 industrial centers in the United States 
during the six months from December i, 1908, to May 
31, 1909, conducted by the Federal Immigration Com- 
mission. Over 31,000 cases reported data complete 
enough for this study, and nearly 120,000 persons were 
involved in these 31,000 cases. It is extremely signifi- 
cant to note that about 21 per cent, of the cases requir- 
ing relief were due to the specific cause "illness of 

*»P. IS. 

EOE. T. Devine: Misery and Its Causes, p. 204. 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 353 

breadwinner," and that nearly 18 per cent, were due 
to the specific cause ''illness of another member of 
family." Thus nearly 40 per cent, of the cases requir- 
ing relief, involving about 49,000 persons out of the 
120,000 concerned, were found to be due to sickness. 
Nearly three-fourths of the men w^ho were given relief 
wxre married at the time. In only 16.4 per cent, of the 
cases where families were involved were there no chil- 
dren, while in over 51 per cent, there were three or 
more children.^^ Of 328,059 persons receiving relief 
in some form in 1910 from the public charitable insti- 
tutions in the state of New York, according to reports 
of the New York Board of Charities, 102,428, or nearly 
one-third, were driven to seek relief in this manner 
because of sickness. Wherever records showing the 
cause of destitution are available, the part that sick- 
ness plays in creating paupers is unmistakably shown 
to be appallingly great. 

" Reports of the U. S. Immigration Commission, Vol. 34. Cities included 
in this investigation were chiefly the smaller and middle-size industrial com- 
munities and did not include New York or Philadelphia. Geographically they 
were distributed as follows: North Atlantic States, 17 localities; North Cen- 
tral States, 18 localities; Southern States, including the District of Columbia, 4 
localities. Nearly 62 per cent, of the cases included in the study were native- 
born individuals and families. 



354 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 



IX 

THE ADEQUACY OF WAGES AND EARNINGS 

The conception of insufficient earnings — whether tney 
be due to low wages or to a lack of employment, or 
both — as a fundamental cause of disease, industrial 
inefficiency and civic weakness, has become very gen- 
eral in recent years. It is no longer a part of trade- 
union propaganda, but it is coming to be one of the 
things that the average man takes for granted. 
Only on rare occasions is the assertion made now- 
adays that the families of workingmen without 
adequate means are usually the victims of work- 
ingmen's laziness or bad habits, or of the "cost 
of high living." Recent investigations made along 
scientific lines, of actual conditions, and the massing 
of statistical evidence, have not only strengthened this 
conception, but they have shocked the equanimity of 
the man on the street by making it coldly clear that a 
considerable proportion of the wage-earning population 
have not been able in recent years to maintain a stand- 
ard of living that is conducive to health and efficiency. 
The public has had its attention drawn to the fact that 
at all times, and at some times more than others, there 
is an appalling amount of poverty in our large cities 



IN ^AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 355 

and industrial towns. Careful studies of the prevalence 
of disease among wage-workers are giving less empha- 
sis to the so-called occupational hazards, because they 
are finding that a great deal of the prevalent ill health 
is due to the inability of wage-earners and wage-work- 
ing families to make ends meet. The self-evident propo- 
sition that facilities for maintaining health, comfort, 
decency, and much of recreation and education (in 
spite of the extension of public facilities), are pur- 
chasable things, and the very evident fact that a serious 
lack of these things has been found among so great a 
proportion of the wage- working population, are becom- 
ing looked upon as undeniable premises to the conclu- 
sion that the wages and incomes of many workers and 
their families have been inadequate, except, perhaps, in 
periods of abnormal industrial activity and restricted 
immigration, such as the present period of 1915-1916. 

It remains to be stated how exactly this conclusion 
is borne out by statistically presented facts. To what 
extent, therefore, are wages of American workers and 
incomes of American wage-earners' famiHes adequate 
to maintain efficiency and reasonable comfort, and to 
provide for their desired and hoped for social progress 
and economic advancement? 

A satisfactorily accurate answer to the question is 
difficult, perhaps impossible. Opinions differ as to what 
standard is necessary for the attainment of such an 
ideal. There are, doubtless, some who are not disposed 
to concede the expediency (even if they do concede the 
justice) of such an ideal for the entire population of a 



356 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

country, and who cling to a social classification based 
on economic castes as necessary for the natural selec- 
tion of the strongest economic individuals. There are 
doubtless to be found, even in this day, those who are 
consciously indifferent to a distribution of national 
wealth which leaves some without even the means of 
subsistence. There are unmistakable signs, however, 
of a verdict from society at large against philosophies 
and indifferences such as these. Humanitarians and 
utilitarians are joining hands in efforts, not merely to 
relieve, but to prevent conditions that result from the 
economic impotency and insecurity of those who are un- 
able, individually or as a group, to attain a level of 
tolerable living. The trend of labor legislation in recent 
years is an unmistakable evidence of the times. The 
minimum wage laws and the growingly popular move- 
ment for social insurance, to cite no other examples, 
are clearly among these efforts. As a result there has 
been a tendency not simply to question the supposed 
adequacy of the wages of American workingmen and 
workingwomen, but to set up standards below which 
wages and family income should not be allowed. Inten- 
sive and comprehensive examinations of wages and 
income in relation to the actual cost of living have 
been made, and wages have been carefully scrutinized 
from the point of view of what they must provide for 
in order to permit efficient work and decent living. 

It is purposed here to review the evidence and to 
summarize these findings for what they are worth. Ap- 
parently they tend to coincide with observations gen- 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 2>S7 

erally made and accepted and to point to certain defin- 
ite standards. They are briefly presented under the 
following heads: (i) The adequacy of earnings of 
male workers to support families; (2) The adequacy 
of women's wages to support independent women wage- 
earners; (3) The adequacy of the incomes of wage- 
working families; and (4) The workingman's family 
and higher living costs. 

Adequacy of Earnings of Male Workers to Support 

Families 

It does not require the fixing of any standard of 
"minimum" or "comfortable" living for the working- 
man's family to determine the adequacy of the earnings 
of the fathers of families to supply sufficient income. 
If it were necessary to show that the annual earnings 
of male workers of marriageable age, as shown by the 
statistics obtained by a large number of authoritative 
investigations, have been insufficient in recent years, it 
is amply indicated by the fact that in every industry 
and in many trades and occupations the average 
family income has been considerably larger than the 
earnings of the father. Less than half of the wage- 
earners' families in manufacturing industries, accord- 
ing to undeniably authoritative data, depended entirely 
upon the earnings of the fathers. With the exception 
of the families whose heads are engaged in occupations 
where wages are considerably above the average, the 
evidence, as has been pointed out, showed that the larger 
the family income the greater were the proportionate 



358 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

contributions from the wage-earning mother and wage- 
earning children, or from boarders and lodgers. The 
conclusion is inevitable that the earnings of the father 
in the average family were insufficient to maintain even 
the standard of living that actually prevailed, much less 
the standard that students of living conditions have 
agreed ought to prevail. 

To illustrate in as brief a manner as possible, a com- 
parison of the annual earnings of adult male workers 
and heads of families may be made with total family 
income. Such a comparison is possible for a large 
number of workers and families in typical industrial 
localities and industries from the statistics published in 
the reports of the Federal Immigration Commission, 
as follows: 

COMPARISON OF ANNUAL EARNINGS OF ADULT MALE WORKERS 
AND HEADS OF FAMILIES AND TOTAL FAMILY INCOME > 

Per cent, having earnings or income 





1 


=3 ^ 


o 




o 


o 


o ^ 




i-s 


o 


o 


»^ 




§ 


2* 




2S 


(U 


«9- 


<^ 


<«- 


<«- 


«»■ 




C o 


bo 


u 


u 


,^ 


u 


hi 




•3-5 




73 


<u 


^ 


^ 


^ 




o ■" 


> 


C 


c 


G 


c 


a 




H 


< 


l:^ 


p 


^ 


p 


O 


Annual Earnings : 
















Adult males .. 


26,616 


$475 


60 


84 


, , 


92 


97 


Family heads . . 


15,038 




50 


78 




89 


96 


Total family income 


15,726 


721 


31 




64 




83 



The investigation of 15,704 families included above 
showed that less than half of them were supported 
entirely by earnings of the father or family head, as 

* Compiled from Reports of United States Immigration Commission, vol, 
20. Since the data for adult male workers, family heads, and families were 
obtained in the same industries and localities and families, and the individuals 
included in the family data were also included in data for annual earnings of 
male workers, the comparison given above is obviously fair. 



IN 'AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 



359 



indicated in the following summary for a number of 
important industries: 

ADEQUACY OF EARNINGS OF HEADS OF FAMILIES TO PROVIDE 
TOTAL FAMILY INCOME 2 



Industry 

Agricultural implements 
Cigars and tobacco . . . . 

Clothing 

Coal mining: 

Anthracite 

Bituminous 

Collars and cuffs 

Copper mining and smelting 

Cotton goods 

Furniture 

Glass 

Gloves 

Iron and steel 

Iron ore mining 

Leather 

Oil refining 

Shoes 

Silk goods 

Slaughtering and meat-packing 

Sugar refining 

Woolens and worsteds.. 



Average 




Per cent, of 


earnings of 


Average 


families entirely 


head of 


family 


dependent on 


family 


income 


earnings of head 


$576 


$741 


51.0 


821 


970 


51.6 


530 


713 


48.2 


457 


618 


36.2 


451 


577 


40.6 


662 


861 


39.8 


740 


991 


46.5 


470 


791 


32.2 


598 


769 


42.3 


596 


755 


44.8 


650 


904 


24.3 


409 


568 


40.5 


706 


990 


55.0 


511 


671 


44.6 


662 


828 


42.2 


753 


765 


34.8 


448 


635 


46.0 


: 578 


781 


51.4 


549 


661 


30.2 


400 


661 


24.9 



An earlier investigation of an even larger number of 
workingmen's families showed a similar situation. In 
25,440 families investigated by the Federal Bureau of 
Labor in 1901, the average annual earnings of the 
father were found to be $621, and the total income 
of the family $749. There was thus a difference of 
$128 annually, or over 17 per cent, of the family 
income, which came from other sources. The average 



» Compiled from the reports of the United States Immigration Commission. 



36o CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

total annual expenditures of these families were found 
to be approximately $700. In other words, the aver- 
age family had to have nearly $80 a year more than 
the father could earn in order to maintain the existing 
standard of living. 

It does not require more than a glance at the fore- 
going statistics to see that the gap between family income 
and earnings of the family head was considerably larger 
in the later investigation and that in the industries where 
the earnings of the family head were low the gap was 
large. In other words, there is such a thing as a mini- 
mum standard of family subsistence — altho if exprest in 
exact figures, it may vary according to race, locality and 
size of family — to which all wage-earning families strive 
to reach. If the head or ^'breadwinner" can not reach 
it, the wife and children must help by working for 
wages or keeping boarders and lodgers. 

The conclusion already stated in these pages, that 
the average male worker in the basic and more regularly 
operated industries loses in years of ordinary industrial 
activity between a sixth and a third of his working time 
for various reasons, suggests the inadequacy of full- 
time wages to maintain a family of average size accord- 
ing to existing standards. If all loss of wages due 
to irregularity of employment could be eliminated, and 
if the male adult worker could work every week in 
the year, would his earnings be sufficient to maintain 
his family according to prevailing standards among the 
wage-working population? 

The available evidence points unmistakably to a nega- 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 361 

tive answer for at least a very large proportion of the 
male wage-earners in the United States. A single illus- 
tration will make the point clear. The Federal Immi- 
gration Commission's data for 220,000 adult male wage- 
earners employed in all occupations in a large number 
of representative plants in the principal industries 
showed an average weekly wage of $12.64. Computed 
in terms of full-time annual earnings (52 weeks) this 
wage would mean a maximum average of about $665, 
as contrasted with an actual average family income of 
between $700 and $800 a year. Statistics of weekly 
earnings of male workers and of annual family income, 
already summarized in the foregoing pages, afford 
numerous and illuminating illustrations of a similar 
character. While in some occupations and trades full- 
time weekly wages would appear to be sufficient to sup- 
ply a family income as large as that indicated to be the 
actual average, in many occupations and trades — appar- 
ently in the majority of industries — full-time wages do 
not appear to be sufficient. Thus the conclusion is sug- 
gested that even in years of extraordinary industrial 
activity, when the greatest opportunity for full-time 
earnings is possible, there were many wage-earning men 
who could not make enough, at wage rates then pre- 
vailing, to support a family of the average size even 
according to standards that have been found to prevail. 
The significance of these facts will at once appear 
when they are taken into consideration with the facts 
relating to the actual sources of income in wage-working 
families, as shown by recent investigations and sum- 



362 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

marized in a previous chapter. The inadequacy of the 
wages of a large proportion of adult male workers 
who are heads of families to provide for the actual 
needs and wants of their families has been found to be 
the reason in a large proportion of families why moth- 
ers must supplement the wages of fathers by earning 
wages as industrial workers or by increasing their 
home duties in taking boarders and lodgers, and why 
many children can not take full advantage of the oppor- 
tunity offered by systems of public education, and must 
seek employment as wage-workers. It seems to be 
fairly generally recognized that the pressure of necessities 
such as these brings in its train serious effects 
upon the health and upon the mental and civic efficiency 
of the wage-^Yorking population and can not do other- 
wise than affect community and national standards, 
both economic and social. The reaHzation of what such 
conditions mean has given a strong impetus to a new 
conception of the proper standard of wages for wage- 
earning men. This conception has been exprest in 
recent literature in a number of different ways. In 
Australia, for example, it has been set forth in admin- 
istrative orders for minimum wages and upheld in the 
courts. Perhaps the latest and most complete state- 
ment of it in the United States appeared in the so-called 
"staff report" to the Federal Commission on Industrial 
Relations, which said : ^ 

"The welfare of the State demands that the useful 

• Final Report of the Commission on Industrial Relations, 1916, p. 92. 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 363 

labor of every able-bodied workman should, as a mini- 
mum, be compensated by sufficient income to support 
in comfort himself, a wife, and at least three minor 
children, and in addition to provide for sickness, old 
age, and disability. Under no other conditions can a 
strong, contented and efficient citizenship be developed." 

The Adequacy of Women's Wages 

There is general agreement in wage determinations 
by various minimum wage commissions, and in the 
results of various investigations, that the American 
woman wage-worker should receive more than $8 a 
week in order to maintain conditions of decency and 
health. This conclusion is based on the actual cost 
of living for several thousands of women workers, and 
assumes that the wage paid should be sufficient to 
maintain the worker independently. 

The fact that about 80 per cent, of women workers 
do not live independently, but live at home, has not 
been taken to constitute a valid argument against the 
proposition that a living wage should be paid to all 
women. It has been regarded as fundamental, by advo- 
cates of the minimum wage, that if the productive effi- 
ciency of a wage- working woman, living away from 
home, entitles her to a living wage, it also entitles other 
wage-working women to a living wage. Furthermore, as 
the Wisconsin Industrial Commission ascertained in an 
investigation of 13,686 women workers living at home 
— practically all of whom contributed all or part of 



364 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

their earnings to family income — the actual cost of 
maintaining women workers at home does not differ 
materially from the amounts paid by women living 
away from home. It was found that in 58 per cent, 
of these cases the actual wages ran below the stand- 
ard living cost of $9.50 per week, and in 6 per cent, 
of the cases the wages were less than their share in 
the family's food and rent budget alone. 

Some determinations of minimum costs of independ- 
ent living for women workers are higher than $8 a 
week; the cost varies largely according to locality. The 
Massachusetts Commission on Minimum Wage set i^yi 
cents an hour for brush factory workers, which, on a 
54-hour basis, would allow $10.37 per week, and set $8.90 
for workers in retail stores. The Minnesota Commis- 
sion set $8.75 for women factory workers, with rates 
from $8 to $9 for workers in other occupations. The 
Oregon law set $8.25 a week for experienced women 
workers in any industry and $6 for inexperienced work- 
ers. In Utah, the law placed $1.25 a day or $7.50 a 
week for experienced workers. The Washington State 
Commission set $8.90 a week for factory workers, with 
slightly lower rates for apprentices and girls under 18 
years of age, and higher rates for certain occupa- 
tions such as stenographers, bookkeepers, etc., and 
mercantile employees. 

Assuming $8 as the lowest amount possible, the 
actual statistics of wages for women workers indicate 
a serious inadequacy of women's wages. As stated in 
the foregoing pages, the available statistics indicate 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 365 

that over three- fourths of the women workers In the 
principal industries and in mercantile establishments 
get less than $8 a week. Nearly half receive only $6 
a week. 

This does not include lost time due to irregularity 
of employment. A recent and comprehensive review 
of the data relating to irregular employment of women 
workers points out that there are "three classes of 
women workers fairly well defined:* 

1. "The smaller group of those permanently em- 
ployed, forming the backbone of the labor force. 

2. "Those who are employed for the entire busy sea- 
son, but are laid off at the close. 

3. "Those who drift in and out of the industry, work- 
ing only a few days or weeks at a time in one place." 

This study stated the following conclusions:^ 

"All facts agree that actual earnings fall far short 
of possible earnings based on 'rates of pay.' This In- 
vestigation leads also to the conclusion that, at least 
for the workers here considered, the average girl or 
woman loses in wages an amount equal to no less than 
15 per cent, of her possible earnings. The younger, 
more irregular worker loses an even greater amount." 

For the second and third groups of women workers 
mentioned above, more time is "lost" than "worked." 

With these conditions thus suggested in even a very 
general way, the graphic facts as to the living condi- 
tion of women workers point unmistakably to the con- 

* Irregular Employment and the Living Wage, by Irene Osgood Andrews, 
American Labor Legislation Review, June, 1915, p. 306. 
6 Ibid, p. 311. 



366 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

elusion that low wages for women have thus two 
general groups of effects: 

First, in the case of the woman worker living at 
home, the family receiving all or part of her wages is 
not compensated for her employment beyond her mere 
subsistence. Her low wages are unfair to the bankrupt 
family as well as to the worker herself. 

Second, low wages of independent women workers 
have a peculiarly direct effect upon their health. In 
order to meet expenses for lodging and clothing they 
reduce their diet to the minimum, often below the 
minimum, and go without medical attention until it is 
too late for medical care to restore them to normal 
efficiency. 

There has not been established any direct causal rela- 
tion between low wages and immorality of women, but 
the investigations agree that low wages are an impor- 
tant contributing factor. 

The 'Adequacy of Family Income 

The foregoing summary of recent discussions and de- 
terminations of "adequate" wages has suggested concep- 
tions of wage standards about which wide differences 
of opinion exist. Aside from those who doubt the expe- 
diency or even the justice of a wage standard under mod- 
ern industrial and social conditions, for male workers, 
which will enable them to support families, or for 
women which will enable them to support themselves 
independently of their families, there are many who 
seriously doubt the practicability of such standards. 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 367 

It is not purposed here to discuss the validit}^ of these 
views. But, as a point in fact, the following question 
appears to be pertinent: 

Does the actual wage-working family, even when 
wife and children are industrially employed for wages 
or when funds from boarders and lodgers or from other 
sources are secured, have an income sufficient to main- 
tain a standard which permits nutritious diet, healthful 
housing and community environment, reasonable com- 
forts, and proper provision against sickness and old 
age? Are these expedients to supplement the wages 
of the father, to which wage-working families have so 
generally resorted, adequate to allow a fair minimum 
of decent, healthful and tolerable living? 

A general answer to this question has doubtless 
already suggested itself in the summarization given in 
a preceding chapter on living conditions of wage- 
working families. The fact that large numbers of 
these families in our large cities and industrial towns 
live under conditions unfavorable to health, decency 
and comfort is, in itself, an eloquent and undeniable 
answer. For there will be few to combat the obvious 
statement that a very small proportion of these wage- 
working families would live under such conditions if 
their incomes were sufficient to enable them to live under 
better conditions. 

The question can be answered more definitely, how- 
ever, than this. As the result of a number of care- 
ful, scientific studies of standards of living among 
families of wage-earners, there are available some data 



368 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

of an authoritative nature which at least poinl^ to a 
reasonable basis for a definite conclusion as to what 
approximate annual income the normal or average fam- 
ily must have in order to maintain such a standard. 
Given some idea of where the border line between 
poverty and adequate subsistence lies, it is possible, with 
such information as to actual wages and family income 
as have been presented, to make an estimate, albeit a 
very general one, of the proportion of wage-working 
families on the poverty side. Stated briefly, and as 
definitely as a consideration of available facts appears 
to warrant, it seems to be fair to venture this con- 
clusion : 

The workingman's family of average size (two adults 
and three children) should have an annual income of 
about $800 to maintain a standard of living that, 
with ordinary frugality, will allow provisions for sepa- 
rate and decent existence, health, and a modicum of 
reasonable comfort, in the usual industrial locality and 
at prices which have prevailed during the last few 
years. In certain localities where the cost of living is 
lower because of cheaper food supplies, cheaper rents, 
less need for fuel, and the like, a lower minimum of in- 
come is possible. The same would be true in smaller than 
"average" sized families. The opposite is true of locali- 
ties where living costs are unusually high, or in fami- 
lies of greater than average size, or families in which 
unusual conditions, such as invalidism, exist. Generally 
speaking, however, $800 appears to be the approximate 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 369 

figure which the evidence obtained in recent years has 
suggested. 

The nature of this evidence is summarized and illus- 
trated in the following paragraphs: 

The Point of Adequate Subsistence. — The various 
recent investigations of budgets of families in different 
ranges of income appear to indicate quite clearly that 
the point of adequate subsistence is not reached until 
an income of about $800 or $900 is provided. The 
percentage of family income spent for food remains 
practically the same, or is greater, in families with 
incomes of less than that amount; in families with 
incomes of $800 or more, the percentage of income 
spent for food is found to be proportionately less as 
income increases, indicating that only then is income 
sufficient to allow a surplus left from food, rent, etc., 
to be spent on ''incidentals." 

This conclusion was shown by the British Board of 
Trade's inquiry into the cost of living in 'American 
towns, in 1909, as well as by Chapin's New York investi- 
gation, in 1907, to which reference has already been made. 
"These figures," said Chapin, referring to the percent- 
ages in relation to income groups, "would seem to 
indicate that not until the family is able to spend well 
beyond $1,000 does it satisfy its wants for food on a 
smaller proportion of its total income than when it had 
only $600 or $700 for all purposes. Whether this is 
due to insufficient nutrition or lower income, or to 
indulgence of more expensive tastes as resources 
increase, we may be able at a later point to suggest. 



370 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

Certainly the point of diminishing percentages of ex- 
penditure for food is placed much higher in the income 
scale than in the cases on which Engel based his well- 
known generalizations." ^ Engel's generalizations were 
borne out quite positively with regard to expenditures 
for food by the Federal Bureau of Labor's Cost of Liv- 
ing Study in 1901, as the statistics already quoted in 
the chapter on Family Income and Expenditure shows. 
Chapin's more intensive study furnished further data, 
which are extremely interesting, regarding the propor- 
tion of underfed in the various income groups. An 
analysis of the nutrition values of the food of these 
families showed that the proportion of underfed fami- 
lies was as follows : '^ 



FAMILY INCOMES AND PERCENTAGE OF UNDERFED FAMIUES 
IN EACH INCOME GROUP 

Per cent. Per cent. 

Family Income of underfed Family Income of underfed 

families families 

$400-$599 76 $900-$l,099 9 

600-799 32 .1,100 and over .. .. 

800- 899 22 

"This means," comments Professor Chapin, "that with 
less than $600 to spend for all purposes, an adequate 
food supply is not provided, and that on from $600 
to $800 incomes, one family in three is underfed, while 
less than one in 10 of the families having $900 and 

«R. C. Chapin: Standard of Living In New York City, p. 123, 

' Ibid, p. 127. These analyses were made by Dr. F. R. Underhill, professor 
of physiological chemistry in Yale University, upon the scale of values adopted 
by the Federal Department of Agriculture. 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 



371 



$1,000 to spend fell short of the minimum for food."^ 
The point of inadequate subsistence has also been 
indicated by various investigations into the health of 
wage-working families and by mortality statistics. The 
relation of poverty to disease is discust in greater 
detail in an earlier chapter, but it is perhaps significant 
to note that the careful studies of infant mortality by 
the Federal Children's Bureau point to a very definite 
line of adequate subsistence. In a steel manufacturing 
town, Johnstown, Pa., for example, it was found that 
unless the family had an annual income of about $800 
or more, the death rate among infants was considerably 

^ Ibid, p. 128. Chapin also presented statistics as tO' underfed, underclothed 
and overcrowded families in the various income groups, from which the following 
tabulation has been made (p. 241): 

PER CENT. OF FAMILIES UNDERFED, UNDERCLOTHED AND 
OVERCROWDED, BY INCOME 





.§ 
•; 






Per cent. 


which were 
^ 






' 










•o 




42 




t 


•13 


c "5 


sI 


h 




<+4 




^ 


73 


« O 


a ^ 


-bJ 


Family Income u 




13 


o 


S| 




o o 




•i 


u 

<L> 


<u 


^ 




<0 JJ 


feS 




i 


tj 


'V 




•§^ 


'O ^ 


•o > 




;3 


a 


G 


> 


a ° 


C o 




55 


ti 


\D 


O 


ID 


t) 


^ 


400-$ 499 . 


. .. 8 


100 


88 


63 


88 


63 


50 


500- 599 . 


.. 17 


65 


88 


71 


59 


47 


53 


600- 699 . 


.. 72 


33 


63 


57 


18 


19 


39 


700- 799 . 


.. 79 


30 


52 


58 


14 


19 


35 


800- 899 . 


.. 73 


22 


32 


53 


10 


15 


25 


900- 999 . 


.. 63 


8 


25 


40 


3 


6 


11 


1,000-1,099 . 


.. 31 


10 


3 


30 




3 




1,100-1,199 . 


.. 18 




6 


21 








1,200 and ov< 


;r . . 30 




" 






•• 





Total 



.. 391 



The size of the families included in the above statistics was not less than 
4 nor more than 6 persons, the average size in each income group being approxi- 
mately 5 persons. 



372 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

above the average.^ Using infant mortality as an indi- 
cator of healthful conditions of living, this can be inter- 
preted only as meaning that a family could not provide 
sanitary housing, healthful environment and adequate 
food, or permit the mother to stay at home and not 
be a wage-earning member of the family, unless the 
family income was over $800 a year. 

Studies of Minimum Standards of Family Income. — 
With the foregoing evidence as to the point of ade- 
quate subsistence, the results of several intensive studies 
of minimum standards of family income tend to agree. 
Giving what seems to be due allowance for differences in 
methods of investigation, in point of view, and in con- 
ditions considered, these studies by various authorities 
of actual conditions in workingmen's families may be 
said to strengthen the estimate that unless a family of 
the normal size ^^ has an income of about $800," it can 
not maintain such a standard of living as we have had 
in mind. It is generally agreed, of course, that a 
greater measure of health than this minimum would 

8 United States Department of Labor, Children's Bureau: Infant Mortality 
— Results of a Field Study in Johnstown, Pa., p. 45. In families where the 
father earned less than $521 a year, or less than $10 a week, the infant mor- 
tality rate was 255.7, as contrasted with 130.7 for the community as a whole, 
and it was three times as high as in families where the father earned $1,200 or 
more a year. In a similar investigation in Montclair, N, J., the Children's 
Bureau found that the infant mortality rate in families where the income was 
less than $12 a week was more than twice as high as in families where the income 
was $23 or more a week. 

" A family of five persons — father, mother, and three dependent children. 

" R. C. Chapin: Standard of Living in New York City; L. B. More: Wage- 
Earners' Budgets; New York State Conference of Charities and Corrections 
committee on standards of living; M. Byington: The Households of a Mill 
Town; J. C. Kennedy: Wages and Family Budgets in the Chicago Stockyards 
District; Fourth Annual Report of the New York State Factory Investigating 
Commission, Vol. iv; New York City Bureau of Standards: Report on the Cost 
of Living for an Unskilled Laborer's Family. 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES :^7s 

afford would be desirable, but approximately $800 
seems to be regarded as the least amount necessary 
after paring down all expenditures for food, clothing, 
rent, insurance, health, furnishings, recreation and inci- 
dentals to a degree that hardly seems possible with the 
utmost frugality. 

The closeness with which these determinations have 
been made will be clearly evident if some of them 
are itemized in some detail and compared with an esti- 
mate submitted by a labor union composed of skilled 
workers and another for government employees. Dur- 
ing 191 5, five determinations and estimates of the 
minimum cost of maintaining a family appeared, two 
of them being made by the New York Factory Inves- 
tigating Commission, one by the New York City Bureau 
of Standards, one by a representative of the legislative 
committee of the American Federation of Labor, one 
by the Amalgamated Association of Street and Electric 
Railways. The last named was an estimate used by 
representatives of street railway employees in the recent 
arbitration in Chicago. They are summarized for 
purposes of comparison in the table on p. 374. 

These determinations are corroborated, in large measure, 
by other well-recognized investigations. For New York 
City, Professor Chapin, in 1907, arrived at the con- 
clusion that "an income under $800 is not enough to 
permit the maintenance of a normal standard" for a 
family of five persons; Mrs. Louise B. More's inves- 
tigations in 1906 pointed to "at least $728 a year"; 
and the special committee of the New York State Con- 



374 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 



ESTIMATES OF ANNUAL COST OF LIVING FOR WAGE-WORKERS' 

FAMILIES IN NEW YORK CITY, BUFFALO, CHICAGO AND 

WASHINGTON, BASED ON FAMILIES OF 

FIVE PERSONS 

j2^ ^.« oj o| |o 

Items of ^3 ^>* B jS > J a "S f»* 

Expenditure ^S j|^-^ ^c jj^ g^- 

Food $380.00 $325.00 $281.00 $529.13 $274.00 

Rent 168.00 200.00 120.00 240.00 240.00 

Fuel and Light 42.00 20.00 40.00 86.00 49.00 

Clothing 104.00 140.00 140.00 167.25 153.00 

Carfare 30.30 31.20 31.20 26.00 

Insurance 22.80 35.60 35.60 20.00 

Health 20.00 22.00 22.00 20.00 

Furnishings 18.00 7.00 7.00 65.50 35.00 

Newspapers 5.00 5.63 5.63 3.00 

Recreation and amusements 40.00 50.00 50.00 7.50 

Miscellaneous 10.00 40.00 40.00 45.50 15.00 



Total annual .. .. $840.18 $876.43 $772.43 $1,209.88 $766.00 



Average weekly .. $16.15 $16.85 $14.85 $23.24 $14.73 

a Fourth Annual Report of the New York Factory Investigating Commis- 
sion, 1915, Vol. iv, p. 1668. 

fc American Federationist, October, 1915, p. 837. 

c Report on the Cost of Living for an Unskilled Laborer's Family in New 
York City, submitted by the (New York City) Bureau of Standards. 

rfThis estimate was presented by Arthur E. Holder, of the legislative com- 
mittee of the American Federation of Labor, in support of the Nolan bill for a 
$3-a-day minimum wage for government employees at a hearing of the Committee 
on Labor, held on March 21, 1916. Mr. Holder stated that $766 would "simply 
purchase a bare subsistence," and is "much below a decent living standard." 
"You will observe that I have tabooed every form of 'luxury,' " he was quoted 
as commenting. "Receiving $765.95 a year, there could be no riding on street 
cars for this workingman's family, no tobacco, no candy, no books, no Sunday- 
school contributions, nothing for the church; no newspapers, no movies, no 
lodge dues, no insurance, no postage stamps and no doctor's bills — for, of course, 
on the 'substantial' diet purchased for 75 cents a day a family of five would 
run no chance of ever getting sick. Moreover, the family must remain station- 
ary — no births, no deaths, no accidents, no medicines, no doctors. In regard 
to 75 cents a day for food for a family of five, if there is a woman in the District 
of Columbia who can buy the food for that family with 75 cents, I wiU take off 
my hat to her as the greatest financier in America." 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 375 

ference of Charities and Corrections reported in 1907 
that a conservative estimate was that *'$825 is suffi- 
cient for the average family of five individuals" ; 
Prof. J. C. Kennedy's investigations of the families 
of stockyard workers in Chicago, caused him to conclude 
that no family of five could "live decently and efficiently 
in the stockyards district" on less than $800 a year. 
The Pittsburgh Survey's investigations in 1907 and 
1908 concluded that $1,291 was a sufficient family 
income, but $200 more was allowed for "sundries" 
than is usually allowed in other estimates. 

It seems hardly necessary to resort to scientifically 
ascertained facts as to actual living conditions to de- 
termine that $800, in round numbers, is about as little 
as the ordinary family can live on if it lives health- 
fully, comfortably and efficiently. A glance at actual 
expenses for unquestionable necessaries should be suffi- 
cient. It must be very evident that the family of aver- 
age size living in the average industrial town, with an 
income of, say, $800 — if it must spend $650 or $700 
for food, rent, clothing, and fuel and light — can 
have very little surplus for savings or extraordinary 
expenditures. Out of what is left "must come the 
funds for amusements and recreation, books, papers and 
magazines, lodge and union dues, benefit and insurance 
premiums, sickness, upkeep of household and kitchen 
furnishings, and the hundred-and-one in:idental ex- 
penditures that are common even to the most frugal 
households. A death in the family is a heavy expense; 
the birth of an additional member of the family is a 



376 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

cause, not only of lessened family income in families 
where the wife is a wage-earner, but also of immediate 
expense and the promise of increasing cost in the 
future. For we are speaking of the ^average' family 
with an income of $700 to $800 a year, which is con- 
sidered adequate if everything 'goes right.' But some- 
times things *go wrong/ " ^^ 

In the light of the evidence which points to an annual 
family income of approximately not less than $800 as 
a reasonable minimum for healthful, efficient, and decent 
living for a family of the ordinary size, the statistics 
of wages and earnings of family heads and of annual 
incomes of workingmen's families do not afford grounds 
for gratification over the economic status of labor in 
the United States during the past decade. It appears 
to be an inescapable fact that a very large proportion, 
possibly a half, of the wage-earners' families in the 
principal industries of this country have been below 
that level during the past few years. It is doubtful 
whether the increases in wages that have been made in 
the period of extraordinary demand for labor and of 
restricted immigrant supply which began in the summer 
of 19 1 5 and prevailed through 191 6, will establish all 
families depending upon employable breadwinners so 
firmly above that level — if, indeed, this has been done 
even in these very fat years — that in future times of ordi- 
nary industrial activity and less restricted immigra- 
tion, to say nothing of the periodically recurring lean 



" B. S. Warren and Edgar Sydenstricker: Health Insurance — Its Relation to 
the Public Health, Bulletin 76 of the U. S. Public Health Service, March, 1916. 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 377 

years, they will be able to maintain a standard of toler- 
able living. 

The Workingman's Family and Higher Living Costs 

No definite conception of the adequacy of wages and 
of family income is possible, of course, without taking 
into consideration the increase in the cost of living 
since 1900. There has been a great deal of discussion 
of the "race" between wages and living costs but, be- 
cause of the lack of comprehensive and exact statistics, 
the most that can be said is that indications point to an 
extremely close race. It is manifestly unfair, as some 
statisticians have done, to measure wages in terms of 
retail food prices alone without determining whether 
the retail prices of other articles, of services, and of 
rent, have advanced as rapidly. At the same time, 
since expenditures for food constitute nearly half of 
the total expenditures of wage- working families, it is 
proper to conclude that a 60 per cent, increase in the 
retail prices of the principal foods must entail sacrifices 
either in diet or in other lines of expenditure, or in 
both, unless wages have advanced to an equal degree. 
It appears to be very plain that in only a few occu- 
pations and trades has there been as much as a 60 per 
cent, wage increase since 1900. 

Whether average wages have or have not actually 
kept up with the total cost of maintaining the wage- 
worker's family is of scarcely less importance than two 
other considerations. One is that the family with an 
income of, say, $650, which was found adequate to 



378 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

make ends meet in 1900, can not ordinarily make ends 
meet now, and there are many such families with 
equally as great demands and necessities as then. Even 
tho the average family may, because of increases in 
wages and of the employment of its women and children, 
have kept its income apace with the advancing cost of 
living, the pressure of higher living cost still falls 
heavily upon those who are below the average. The 
other consideration is that the social standard of mini- 
mum subsistence has become more costly. New de- 
sires and new wants have been created, and it is impos- 
sible to assume that the wage-working family has not 
been affected in much the same way as the family of 
the business man, the banker, the office worker, or even 
the farmer. Certain changes in the manner of living 
have occurred that probably the wage-working family, 
as well as any other family, could well do without; 
there are other changes, however, which have been 
brought about in response to those wants whose creation 
has been the mark of advancing civilization. Good or 
bad, changes in the customs and manner of living can 
not be overlooked in considering the question of ade- 
quacy of wages and family income. They are social 
products for which we can blame the wage-working 
population least of all. The fact which is of distinct 
pertinence here is that even if the levels of prices and 
wages had remained without change since 190a, the 
cost of living would have increased, because the social 
standard of living has become more expensive. To 
live adequately to-day costs more than it did even ten or 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 379 

fifteen years ago, not simply because prices have gone 
up, but because our standards of health, comfort, and 
efficiency are more exacting, to say nothing of the cost 
of satisfying those new desires which we might do 
without. 

Aside from these considerations, however, the facts, 
so far as they are available from statistical sources, of 
higher living costs in relation to wages and income 
deserve to be mentioned because of their importance in 
throwing light on present conditions. The statistics 
of full-time weekly wages furnished for a number 
of trades and industries by the Federal Bureau of Labor 
Statistics appear to indicate that up to 191 5 the average 
increase has been between 25 and 30 per cent, since 
1900.^^ These figures are possibly too high since the 
statistics may include a disproportionate number of well 
unionized skilled trades whose wage rates have 
advanced more rapidly than those of unskilled 
occupations. In contrast may be presented statistics 
of prices. Unfortunately, statistics of retail prices 
are available only for foods,^* but at least some 
idea of the advance in prices of other articles may be 
gained from the wholesale price statistics furnished by 
various governmental and commercial authorities. Se- 

*3 See the discussion by I. M. Rubinow, Chief Statistician of the Ocean 
Accident and Guarantee Corporation: The Trend of Real Wages, American 
Economic Review, December, 1914, pp. 793-817. 

The wage statistics used by Dr. Rubinow in his computation are those reg^u- 
larly published in the retail price bulletins of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 
and cover cotton goods, woolen goods, silk, boots and shoes, knit goods, lumber, 
millwork, furniture, building trades, bakers, marble and stone cutting, foundry 
and machine shops and printing. 

" See Bulletins of the U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on Retail Prices 
of Foods. 



38o CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

lecting the statistics for those items of expenditure 
which we have seen to be the principal necessaries, the 
advances in prices from 1900 to 19 13 may be roughly 
stated as follows: 

Per cent, 
of increase 
Item 1900-1913 

Food : retail a 62 

wholesale 31-52 

Clothing (and cloth) : wholesale 16-20 

Fuel: retail (coal, 1907-1913) 5-10 

Fuel and lighting: wholesale 17 

Housing: wholesale prices of lumber and building 

materials 31 

Wages of building labor 45 

Household furnishings: wholesale 11 

a Retail price data exist for only food and coal, and are supplied by the 
records of the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. For the other items only 
wholesale price data are available, and are therefore not adequately indicative 
of the full extent of their advance in the prices paid by the ultimate consumer. 
The wholesale price data are supplied by the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, 
Bradstreet's, R. G. Dun & Company, the New York Times Annalist, and Thomas 
Gibson. Where two figures are given in the summary for one item, the mini- 
mum and maximum results, as shown by different authorities, are indicated. 

The increased cost of maintaining the wage-working 
family can not, of course, be stated definitely on the 
basis of such statistics as the above, but a suggestive 
illustration is pertinent : 

The extensive budgetary investigation of working- 
men's families conducted by the Federal Bureau of 
Labor in 1901 ^^ — before the advance in prices began 
to be markedly evident — found that the "normal" fam- 
ily was able to subsist and even have savings upon an 
income of between $600 and $700 a year, according 
to the standard of living then existing. ^^ The average 

*" See Eighteenth Annual Report of the U. S. Commissioner of Labor, 1903. 

" By "normal" family was meant the family in which the man is the bread- 
winner and the wife nonwage-earning, and the children under fourteen years 
of age and dependent. 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 381 

family in that range of annual income was found to 
have an expenditure of $612 for all purposes at prices 
then prevailing. This amount was found to be spent 
approximately in the following manner: 

Per cent, 
of total 
Item Amount expenditure 

Food $266 43.5 

Rent 113 18.5 

Fuel and light 35 6.0 

Clothing 79 13.0 

Sundries 119 20.0 

i\!pplying the percentages of increase in the various 
items of expenditure, what would the same family 
have required to maintain the same standards in, say, 
1913, as it did before the great price advance began? 

Wherever retail price data are available, they may, 
of course, be used. In the case of wholesale price 
data, it seems to be conservative to use the highest 
percentages computed from the various wholesale price 
authorities. In the case of rent, 35 is used as the 
percentage of increase, taking into consideration both 
the higher cost of building materials and the higher 
labor cost. This seems to be very conservative in the 
light of statistics of actual rent increases for shorter 
periods than the 1 900-1913 period. 

Upon this conservative basis, the following results 
appear (see the table on p. 382). 

Allowing for no increase in the cost of the "sun- 
dries" actually bought or necessitating expenditures, and 
for no increase in the number of "sundry" expendi- 
tures to meet the broadened and greater variety of 



382 CONDITIONS OF LABOR 

wants in 1913, as compared with 1900, the cost of main- 
taining a family according to the same standard now 
as then would have been over $200 greater, or an 
increase of 35 per cent. 

Item of Amount Amount 

Expenditure expended Increase necessary 

in 1900 in price in 1913 

Food $266 62 $430a 

Rent 113 35 152 

Fuel and light .... 35 17 41 

Clothing 79 8 85 

Sundries 119 .. 119 

Total $612 .. $827 

a It is significant to note that the United States Public Health Service paid 
about 35 cents a day for a well-balanced ration sufficient to supply an adult male 
with 3,000 to 3,500 calories a day for its marine hospital employees, etc., in 1914. 
On this basis, the annual cost of food for a family as defined above (3.3 adult 
male units), would be approximately $420 a year. The cost of the United States 
Public Health Service ration was based on retail prices prevailing during the 
year, and the food was purchased under annual contract. The contract prices 
would be somewhat lower than ordinary retail prices, but the quality of food 
was of the best grades. Hence the figure, $430, is believed to be conservative. 

It would be improper, of course, to attempt anything 
like an exact estimate of the increase in family living 
costs by such a method, and by such data as have been 
employed in the foregoing illustration. Statistics such 
as these are possibly of some value because they 
serve to stimulate a consideration of the economic 
status of the wage-earning population in definite and 
understandable terms. They are not, however, wholly 
without value as indicating the actual trend of condi- 
tions, especially when individual experience, frequently 
appearing observations, and conclusions of careful 
students of conditions so positively tend to corroborate 
them. They may be accepted in a general way as sug- 



IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 383 

gesting the manner in which higher Hving costs have 
affected wage-working families. To state it conserva- 
tively, the effect of the increased cost of living has been 
to nullify, in large measure, the advantages gained by 
w^age increases and by sacrifices made by the wives and 
children of workingmen in entering industrial em- 
ployment. 



INDEX AND BIBLIOGRAPHY 



38s 



INDEX 



A. F. of L., 11, 12, 373. 

Accident disability, causes of unem- 
ployment, 316-317. 

Accidents, industrial, 192-212; causes 
of, 197, 320; causes of fatal ac- 
cidents, in Mass., 1912-13, 200, — in 
Calif., 1915, 200; comparative per- 
centages of fatal accidents in fac- 
tories in New York, 1911-14, by 
main causes, 198; due to power 
machinery, 199; duration of dis- 
ability in injuries received, in 
Mass., 1913, 209, in Ohio, 1914, 
210; economic significance, 207, 
208; estimate of fatal accidents in 
the U. S. in 1913, by industry 
groups, 195; extent of, 192-193; in 
coal mining, 202; mortality from, 
U. S. Registration Area by age 
groups in specific occupations, 196, 
by occupation and age groups; 
Prudential Experiment, 197; nature 
of injuries, 203, in the State of 
New York, 1911-13, 204, by parts 
of the body injured, 1911-13, 205; 
number and percent of men killed 
and injured in metal mines and 
quarries in the U. S., 1912, 206; 
slight injuries become serious, 206- 
207; see also; injuries occupational 
accident hazards. 

Agricultural implements and vehicles, 
2, 6, 34, 357. 

Agriculturists, 318. 

Alabama, 308. 

Alien races, 1; (see also Labor force.) 

Alton, 111., 124. 

Amalgamated Association of Street 
and Electric Railways, 373. 

Amalgamated Engineers, 13, 

American, 267, 274, 277, 278, 284, 
287, 288, 291, 295, 300, 302, 303, 
311, 315. 

American Association for Labor 
Legislation, 334. 

American Federation of Labor, 11, 12, 
373. 

American industries; racial distribu- 
tion, 5; foreign born wage-earners, 
2; investigation, U. S. Immigration 
Commission, summary 1. 



American Iron and Steel Institute, 

339. 
American Labor Legislation Review, 

331. 
Americans, native, 1; black, 2; 

white 1. 
Amusements, 228, 273. 
Analysis of the causes of loss in 

working time or unemployment, 117. 
Andrews, Mrs. Irene Osgood, 79, 365. 
Anemic workers, 332. 
Annual earnings of wage-workers, 61. 
Anthracite coal miners, 279. 
Apartment, 280, 292, 293, 297. 
Armenians, 6. 

Artificial flower making, S3. 
Augusta, Ga., 124. 
Austria-Hungary, 6, 8, 10. 
Austro-Hungarian, 3, 277, 287, 289, 

329. 



Babbage, Charles, 234. ' 

Bacon, 284, 286. 

Bakers, 331. 

Bakery work, 17. 

Balkans, 5. 

Baltimore, 125, 265, 291. 

Bankruptcy, 282. 

Barbers, 17. 

Barley, 286. 

Barnett, Geo. E., 11, 19. 

Bartenders, 331. 

Baton Rouge, 124. 

Bayonne, 307. 

Beans, 283, 284; dried, 286. 

Beef, 289; corned, 286; fresh, 283, 
285, 286. 

Bethlehem Steel Works, 33. 

Better classes, 310. 

Beveridge, W. H., 73, 156. 

Bill posters, 17. 

Birmingham, Ala., 304. 

Biscuit, 286. 

Bituminous coal miners, 279, coal 
mining. 

Blacksmiths, 13. 

Board, 297; (see also lodgers; lodg- 
ing.) 

Boarders, 266, 269, 295-301, 360, 362, 
367; (see also lodgers.) 



387 



388 



INDEX 



Boarding, 296-298; group, boarding, 
301. 

Boarding boss system, 299. 

Boarding houses, 289, 301, 302, 

Bohemians, 3, 6, 10. 

Boiler makers, 13. 

Bookbinders, 15. 

Bookbinding, 15, 19, 37. 

Books, 273. 

Boot and shoe cutters, 15. 

Boot and shoe factories, Haverhill, 
Mass., Lynn, Mass., 307. 

Boot and shoe work, IS. 

Booth, Charles, 166. 

Boots and shoes, 2, 6, 34, 53. 

Boston, 104, 125, 294, 295, 302, 305; 
home-owning, 305. 

Boxes, 34, 53. 

Boxmakers and sawyers, 16. 

Bradstreet's, 380. 

Bread, 285, 289, 290; rye, 286; wheat, 
286; wheaten 284; other, 286. 

Breadwinner, 360. 

Breakfast cereal, 286. 

Brewery work, 17. 

Brick and tile work, 16. 

Bricklayers and masons, 12. 

Bridge and Iron work, 10. 

British, 268. 

British Board of Trade, 267, 268, 274, 
284, 291, 292, 302, 303, 369; (see 
also Great Britain Board of Trade.) 

British born, 285. 

Brockton, Mass., 303. 

Brooklyn, 291. 

Broom makers, 17. 

Brush makers, 17, 53. 

Buffalo, 125, 294, 295, 374; home-own- 
ing, 305. 

Building laborers, 12. 

Bulgarian, 6. 294, 299, 300. 

Buns, 286. 

Butter, 284, 286. 

Byington, M., 372. 

Cairo, 111., 124. 

Cakes, 286, 290. 

California Industrial Accident Com- 
mission, 200. 

California Industrial Welfare Com- 
mission, 45, 49, 51. 

Camps, temporary, 296, 297. 

Canada, 6, 8, 10, 269. 

Canadian, 9, 10, 38; French-Canadian, 
5, 7. 

Canneries, 34, 53. 

Cap makers, 15. 

Car building and repairing, 8. 

Car work, 13. 

Carpenters, 331; United, 12. 



Carpet manufacturing, 8, 10. 

Carriage work, 13. 

Casual labor and laborers, 333. 

Causes of industrial accidents, 197. 

Cement work, 12. 

Cereals, 287. 

Chandelier work, 13. 

Chapin, R. C. 267, 369, 371, 373. 

Charity, 273. 

Charity Organization Society, New 
York, 172, 350. 

Charity relief, 314. 

Charleston, S. C, 124. 

Cheese, 286. 

Chemical group, 16. 

Chicago, 125, 265-268, 291, 294, 295, 
302, 305, 308, 374, 375; home- 
owning, 305. 

Children, 25, 265-271, 273, 276, 281, 
285, 289, 292, ZZZ; age groups, 26, 
27; average number at home, 270; 
employment of, 25; health of, 314; 
illness, 321; in industry, 26, 27. 

Children's Bureau (see U. S. Chil- 
dren's Bureau). 

Chocolate, 286. 

Cigarmakers, 17, 331. 

Cigars and tobacco, 2, 6, 34, 54, 359. 

Cincinnati, 125. 

Cities, industrial, 293. 

Cities, large, 305; congested districts, 
305. 

Citizen, 306. 

Citizenship, 363. 

City, residential section, slums, tene- 
ment, working-class section, 306. 

City employees, 16. 

Class distinction in Public Administra- 
tion, 310. 

Qerks, 331. 

Cleveland, 125, 291, 294, 295, 339. 

Clinic, 228. 

Cloth hat and cap makers, IS. 

Clothweavers, 13. 

Clothing, 2, 6, 15, 19, 35, 54, 272-274, 
277, 281, 359, 381; rise in prices, 
380. 

Clothing manufacturing, Rochester, 
N. Y., 307; workers, 279. 

Coal, Alabama, Colorado, Indiana, 
Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia, 308. 

Coal mines, Penn., 308. 

Coal mining, anthracite, 359; bitumi- 
nous, 6, 359. 

Cocoa, 286. 

Coffee, 286, 289. 

Cohoes, N. Y., 124, 307. 

Collar and cuff workers, 6, 279, 307, 
359. 

Colorado, 308. 



INDEX 



389 



Comfort, 272, 282, 289, 292. 

Commercial telegraphers, 14. 

Commission on Industrial Relations on 
the New York Dock Worker, 145. 

Communities, industrial, 303; where a 
single plant affords the entire de- 
mand for labor, 304: mining, 291, 
294, 298, 304. 

Community, industrial, 291, 292; man- 
ufacturing, 294. 

Community environment, 283, 305, 
306-312, 322; as cause of ill-health, 
313; unfavorable, effects of, 338. 

Community study, 289. 

Community well-being, 310. 

Compensation laws, Legislation, 314. 

Composition roofers, 12. 

Comprest air workers, 12. 

Condiments, 286. 

Conditions causing irregular employ- 
ments, 117-175. 

Conditions determining the workers 
ability to grasp or retain the oppor- 
tunity to be employed, 164. 

Confectionery, 35, 54. 

Congestion, 291, 293-295, 298, 305; 
as cause of ill health, 313. 

Construction work, 6. 

Contentment, 272. 

Cooke, M. L., 161. 

Coopers, 16. 

Cooperative Employment Bureau, San 
Francisco, 171, 333. 

Copper miners, 279. 

Copper mining and smelting, 2, 6, 35, 
359. 

Corn, sweet, 286. 

Cornmeal. 284, 286. 

Corsets, 35. 54. 

Cost of living, 267; annual, for wage- 
earners' families, 374; rise in, 280; 
study of, by Bureau of Labor, 106. 

Cotton goods manufacturing, 2, 6, 35, 
55, 359. 

Cotton mill workers, 279. 

Crackers, 286. 

Croatians, 3, 5, 7, 9, 10, 38, 289, 294, 
298-300. 303. 

Croxton, Fred. C, 45, 209. 

Cuban, 7. 

Cumberland, Md., 124. 

Cutlery and tool manufacturing, 8. 

Cutting die makers, 13. 

Danish, 7. 

Darlington, Th., 339. 
Daughters, 301. 

Death, 273; (see also Mortality). 
Death rate, excess of female over 
male, 343. 



Decency, 282, 289, 292, 297. 

Deficiencies of character, 165. 

De Kalb, III., 308. 

Denominational industries, 311. 

Destroyed efficiency, cause of sickness, 
321. 

Detroit, 125, 291. 

Devine, E. T., 352. 

Diamond work, 13. 

Diet, 277, 281, 283-285, 287-289, 321; 
balanced, 290; inadequate, 334; in- 
nutritious, cause of ill health, 313; 
insufficient, cause of sickness, 321; 
of wage-working families, 283-290; 
properly balanced, lack of, 334. 

Differences in family income accord- 
ing to geographic divisions, 250; ac- 
cording to industry, 251. 

Disability, 316. 

Discouragement, cause of sickness, 
321. 

Disease, 333; causes of, in the wage- 
earners' work and environments, 
313, 314; caused by occupational 
hazards, 328; occupational factors 
in, 318; occupational hazards, 321- 
330; organized prevention of, 314; 
prevalence among industrial work- 
ers, 317-321; uncertain income, 
cause of, 330. 

Diseases of the arteries, digestive sys- 
tem, heart, kidneys, nervous system, 
320. 

Dishonesty, 165. 

Distribution of wage-working families 
according tO'«income, 249. 

Dock Workers, N. Y., 157, 333; Com- 
mission on Industrial Relations on 
the New York Dock Worker, 145. 

Doughnuts, 286. 

Dripping, 286. 

Dublin, Louis K., 316. 

Duke, Emma, 339. 

Dull seasons, 150, 331. 

Duluth, 291. 

Dun, R. G., & Co., 380. 

Dusts, 323. 

Dutch, 7, 304. 

Dwelling, 280; employer-owned, 314; 
(see also house, housing, living con- 
ditions). 

Earnings, 361; annual, full term, 361; 
estimates based upon daily and 
hourly rates have not been em- 
ployed, X. 

Earnings, weekly, Massachusetts State 
Report, 31. 



390 



INDEX 



Economic factors affecting the health 
of the wage-working population, 321- 
325. 

Economic significance of industrial ac- 
cidents, 207. 

Economic status, 269; inequalities of, 
309. 

Economic uncertainty, causes of sick- 
ness, 321. 

Economist, interest in health of wage- 
earners, 313. 

Educational facilities, 282. 

Effects of unemployment, 169. 

Efficiency destroyed, cause of sickness, 
321. 

Efficiency of worker impaired by ir- 
regular employment, 313. 

Eggs, 286. 

Elastic goring weavers, 13. 

Electric railway transportation, 8. 

Electric supplies manufacturing, 2, 8, 
10. 

Electrical work (A. F. L.), 12. 

Electrotypers, 15. 

Elevator constructor, 12. 

Emerson, Harrington, 235. 

Emmet, Boris, 220. 

Employees, 304. 

Employer, interest in health of wage- 
earners, 313; owner of all property, 
311; reforms by, 309; permanency 
of worker's residence advantage to, 
304. 

Employer-owned buildings, safeguards, 
sanitary conveniences, 314. 

Employers' welfare work (see Welfare 
work). 

Employment, evolutionary changes af- 
fecting, 119; methods of, changes 
in, 120; decrease in wage-earners', 
123, 124; increase in wage-earners', 
123, 125. 

Employment, irregular, 152, 296; an- 
alysis of the causes of loss in work- 
ing-time or unemployment, 117; 
changes in demand for labor accord- 
ing to industry, 122; according to 
locality, 123; due to the introduction 
of machinery and new processes, 
130; changes in industrial structure 
and methods, 120; changes in or- 
ganization of industry, 130; fluctua- 
tions, cyclical, 139; fluctuations, 
seasonal, 141; in silk mills, 153, 
154; in steel mills, 158; of dock- 
workers, 157, 158; of stockyards, 
158-160; of canning industry, 173; 
(see also Unemployment, Working 
day). 



Employment Bureau, San Francisco 
Cooperative, 171, Z2Z. 

Employment of children, 25. 

Employment of women, 342. 

Employment Offices, workers placed, 
109. 

Engel, 370. 

Engineers, Amalgamated, 13. 

England, 6, 8, 10, 269. 

English. 5, 7, 9, 10, 38, 136, 277, 287, 
289, 303. 311. 320. 

English, instruction in, for foreigners, 
228. 

Engravers, photo, 15. 

Environment (see Community envi- 
ronment. Health). 

Environment, proper, two reasons why 
not available for all citizens, 309- 
312. 

Europe, eastern, 279, 287, 303; north- 
ern, 287; western, 279, 287. 

European sickness insurance society, 
328. 

European statistics on tuberculosis, 
336. 

Evolutionary changes affecting em- 
ployment, 119. 

Excessive fatigue, caused by work- 
ing conditions, 325-328. 

Expenditures, 273, 275; of wage-earn- 
ing families, 271. 

Exposure, 333. 

Extent of Trade Union membership, 
11. 

Factories, movement for better condi- 
tions in, 323; safeguards, 314; sani- 
tary conveniences, 314. 

Fall River, Mass., 124, 125, 307, 348. 

Families, 289, 290, 293, 297; Austro- 
Hungarian, 287; English, 287; Car- 
man, 287; Irish, 287; Italian, 287; 
native American, 287; native white, 
287, 288, 292; newer immigrant, 
287; older immigrant, 292; Russian, 
287; Scotch, 287; Welsh, 287; home- 
owning heads of, American, Croa- 
tian, English, European, Greek, He- 
brew, Irish, Magyar, Portuguese, 
Roumanian, Ruthenian, Russian, 
Scotch, Servian, Syrian; size of, 
371; over-crowded, 371; underfed, 
370, 371; underclothed, 371. 

Families, Wage-earner's, 280, 281-285, 
289, 291, 292, 295; (see also Wage- 
earners). 

Family, 333; expenditures, 268, 271- 
283; expenses, 300; income, 370; 
income, adequacy of, 366; income, 
sources of, 267; income, what part 



INDEX 



391 



of spent for subsistence, clothing, 
and shelter, 272; life, 297; number 
of persons per, 285; other members, 
267; workingman's, average size, 
368; savings proportionate tO' size 
of, 277. 

Family income, minimum standards, 
272. 

Family subsistence, minimum stand- 
ard, 360. 

Farmers, 331. 

Farr, William, 348. 

Father, 266-271, 294. 

Fatigue, excessive, 325-335. 

Fatty foods, 284, 287. 

Federal Post Office Clerks' Associa- 
tion, 16. 

Federal . . . All other headings be- 
ginning with (see U. S., followed 
by name of bureau). 

Filth, accumulation of, 335. 

Finnish, 7, 38. 

Firearms manufacturing, 2, 8. 

Fish, 286, 287. 

Fishberg, Maurice, 336, 337, 

Flint glass work, 16. 

Food, 272-278; 284, 285, 287-290, 381; 
expenditures, 278, 280, 281, 284, 
288; price of, 272-274, 278, 281, 285, 
289; rise in prices, 335, 380. 

Food, liquor and tobacco, 19. 

Food prices, meat and other protein 
food, 335. 

Foods, fatty, 284, 287; protein, 283, 
287; retail prices of, 379, 380: 
starchy, 284, 287. 

Foreign, 277, 279. 

Foreign-born, 263, 298, 

Foreign-born wage-earners, 2; in in 
dustries, 2 (see also Wage-earners 
foreign). 

Foundry, employees, 13. 

Foundry and machine shops, 2, 8, 10 

Fleming, Ralph D., xi. 

Flour, 284, 287; buckwheat, 286; rye 
286; wheat, 286. 

Fluctuations, cyclical, 139; seasonal 
141 (see also employment, irregu 
lar). 

France, 6. 

Frankel, Lee K., 316. 

French, 7, 298. 

French-Canadian, 5, 7. 

Frey, 243. 

Fruits, 284, 286. 

Fuel, 272, 273, 274, 277, 281; rise in 
prices, 380. 

Fuel and light, 380. 

Fumes, 323. 

Fur work, 17. 



Furniture manufacturing, 2, 6, 35, 55, 
273, 359. 

Gain sharing, 234; (see also profit- 
sharing). 

Gantt, H. L., 235. 

Garment workers, 15, 331; New York 
City, Z27. 

Gases, 323. 

General nativity and race, 6. 

Germans, 3, 5, 7, 38, 136, 277, 279, 
294, 298, 304, 320, 329. 

Germany, 6, 8, 9, 10. 

Gibson, Thomas, 380. 

Glass, 6, 36, 55, 307, 308, 359; work- 
ers 279, 308, 331. 

Glass bottle blowers, 16. 

Glass manufacturing, 2. 

Glass work, amalgamated, 16. 

Glove work, 15. 

Gloves, 6, 359. 

Goldberger, 334. 

Government employees, 16. 

Granite cutters, 279, 287. 

Great Britain, 279, 287; Board of 
Trade, 268, 274, 284, 291, 292, 302. 

Greek, 7, 9, 10, 303. 

Group boarding 301. 

Group lodging, 301. 

H. C. Frick Coke Co., 231. 

Hagerstown, Md., 124. 

Ham, 283, 286. 

Hammond, Ind., 124. 

Hardware and cutlery, 307. 

Harmful conditions in places of em- 
ployment, 323. 

Harmful substances, 323. 

Hat and cap makers, 15. 

Hatters. 15. 

Haverhill, 307. 

Hawaii, 176. 

Hayhurst, E. R., 318. 

Hazards from harmful substances, 212- 
219. 

Health, 272, 282, 292, 297; and income 
of male garment workers, 347; as 
an economic necessity, 314, 315; ef- 
fects of unfavorable community en- 
vironment upon wage-earners, 338; 
irregularity of employment and, 
330; public service, 315; sanitation, 
313; wage-earners, 315-356. 

Health insurance, 328; governmental, 
for wage-earners, 314; its relation 
to the public health, 315. 

Health promotion, systematic methods 
for. 314. 

Heat and asbestos work, 12. 

Heavy industries, 186. 



392 



INDEX 



Hebrews, 136, 294, 299, 300, 303; Rus- 
sian. 7. 

High cost of living, Z77. 

Higher cost of living, and the work- 
ingman's family, Z77. 

Hod carriers, 12. 

Hoffman, Fred. L., 192. 

Hog products, fresh, 287; salt, 287. 

Holder, Arthur E., 374. 

Holyoke, 307. 

Home, 321. 

Home-owners, 303-305. 

Homes, ownership of, 283, 302-305. 

Homestead, Pa., 124. 

Homeworkers, 265. 

Homeworking, 265. 

Hop growing, 151, 

Horseshoers, 17. 

Horst Company, 151. 

Hosiery and knit goods, 8, 10, 26, 55, 
307. 

Hotel employees, 17. 

Hotel work, 17. 

Hours of Labor, 176; eight-hour limit 
in 28 states, 117; eight-hour day se- 
cured by agreements with employers, 
178,179; employers' attitude toward, 
325; nine-hour limit in 27 states, 
177; ten-hour limit in Oregon, 177, 
178; limitations by states, 176; trend 
toward a shorter day, 176; in the 
machines trade, 179, 180; in the 
men's clothing industry, 180, 181; 
in the cotton goods manufacturing 
industries, 181; in the silk goods 
manufacturing, 182; in the shoe in- 
dustry, 182; in the iron and steel in- 
dustry, 182; legislation, 326 (see 
also working day, profit sharing, 
labor and scientific management, 
employers' welfare work). 

House, 280, 292; single family, 291, 
297; two-family, 291; three-family, 
291. 

Houses, company, 304; detached, 304; 
hideous sameness, 308; owned by 
employer, 304; rented, 304; scorn 
of architectural art, 308; smaller, 
Philadelphia, 305. 

Household, 279, 296, 299, 305; family, 
298, 300; head, nativity of, 298; 
head of, 279, 294, 299, 300; immi- 
grant, newer, 300; immigrant, older, 
300; large cities, 305; native, 300; 
single family, 298; wage-earners, 
280. 297. 

Household furnishings, rise in prices 
of, 380. 

Housing, 273, 283; conditions, 289, 
291-295; expenditures, 280; rise in 



prices of lumber, 380; shacks, 291; 

tenement, 291. 
Hoxie, Robert Franklin, 237. 
Humanitarians, 356. 
Hungarian, 136. 
Hungary hollows, 306. 
Husband, 265-267, 269-270, 27Z, 277, 

292, 300, 333. 
Hygiene, 324. 



I. W. W. (Chicago), 17. 

Ignorance, 345. 

Immigrant, 276-279, 288; newer, 288, 
289-293, 295, 296-299; newer, chil- 
dren of, 289; older, 298. 

Immigrant colony, 308. 

Immigrant communities, types of, 306- 
308. 

Immigrant group, older, 279; newer, 
279. 

Immigrants, 266, 278, 287, 288; ad- 
mitted since 1890, 135; eastern Eu- 
rope, 310, 311; exploited, 311; re- 
cent, 307; southern Europe, 310, 
311. 

Immigration races, older, 288, 293. 

Immigration, newer, 38, 306; older, 
38; recent, 308. 

Immigration Commission (see U. S. 
Immigration Commission). 

Immigration problem, 307. 

Inability to speak English, 311. 

Income, 288-290; average weekly, 270; 
average weekly, husband, 270; clas- 
sified, 275; husband's, 300; mini- 
mum standards of family, 372; of 
workers, 279-281, 289, 330. 

Income and health of male garment 
workers, 347, 

Income of $650 in 1900, 377, 378; to- 
day, 378, 379. 

Incomes, annual, of wage-working 
families, 246; families, 370; sources 
of. 253. 

Increased cost of living nullified ad- 
vantages gained by wage increases, 
383. 

Independent workers of the world, 
17. 

Indiana, 308, 325; Commission of 
working women, 89. 

Indianapolis, 125. 

Individual, 290. 

Industrial accidents (see accidents, in- 
dustrial). 

Industrial Commission, Ohio, 32. 

Industrial communities, 303, 304. 

Industrial community, 291, 292, 294- 
296, 306, 308. 



INDEX 



393 



Industrial establishments not free from 
unhygienic conditions, 324; forces, 
1; health hazards, 324; localities, 
305, 310; occupations, 306; workers, 
1. 282. 

Industrial Relation on the New York 
Dock Worker, Commission on, 145. 

Industries, denominational, 311; para- 
sitic, 172; racial distribution, 5. 

Industries in which wage-earners were 
employed 72 hours or more, 189 
(see also employment, working day). 

Industry, changes in organization of, 
130. 

Infants, illness, 321. 

Influential citizens, collective power 
of. 309. 

Injuries, nature of, 203-212 (see also 
accidents, industrial; occupational 
accident hazards). 

Insanitary conditions in places of 
work. 217. 

Insurance, 273. 

Intemperance, 165. 

Interest, 273. 

International Cooperative Congress, 
Paris, 1889, 220. 

Ireland, 6, 8, 10, 269, 303. 

Irish, 5, 7, 9, 10, 38, 136, 277, 279, 
287. 294, 298. 

Iron and steel, 6, 36, 308, 359; manu- 
facturing, 2; workers, 279, 331. 

Iron ore manufacturing, 6, 359. 

Iron ore raining, 2, 307, 308. 

Iron, steel and tin work, 13. 

Iron work, 10. 

Irregular employment, effects on 
workers, 332; effect on efficiency of 
workers, 313. 

Irregularity, 165; of employment and 
health. 330-342. 

Italians, 4, 5, 136, 277, 287, 289, 294, 
299, 300, 303; northern, 7, 9, 10, 
38; southern, 7, 9, 10, 38. 

Italy, 6. 

Jacksonville, 124. 

Jams, 286. 

jewelry, 307. 

Johnstown, Pa., 289, 308, 339, 341, 

347. 371. 372. 
Joplin, Mo., 327. 

Kansas, 30, 33; State Report on week- 
ly earnings, 31. 

Kennedy, John C, 159, 266, 267, 372, 
375. 

Kentucky Commission to investigate 
Condition of Working Women, 147. 

Kindergartens, 228. 



Knopf's statement of relationship of 

poverty to tuberculosis, 350. 
Knoxville, Tenn., 124. 

Labor, 273; changes in demand for, 
according to industry, 122; accord- 
ing to locality, 123; condition of, 
in American industry, 315; due to 
the introduction of machinery and 
new processes, 126; low paid, 304; 
mobility of, 296; reserve of, 163. 

Labor and scientific management, 233 
(see also scientific management, 
Taylor system, piece-rate system). 

Labor force, 1-28; nativity, 1, 2, 3; 
Americans, native, white, 1 ; black, 
2; Austro-Hungarians, 3; Balkans, 
5; Bohemians, 3; Croatians, 3, 5; 
English, 5; French-Canadians 5; 
Germans, 3, 5; Hebrews, 1, 3, 6; 
Irish, 5; Italians, 4; Lithuanians, 
40; Magyars, 3; Negroes, 2; Poles, 
4; Russians, 5; Scotch, 5; Servians, 
136; Slovak, 3; Swedes, 5; Welsh, 
136. 

Labor leader, interest in health of 
wage-earners, 313. 

Labor legislation, 356. 

Labor supply, 303; changes in the 
quantity and character of the, 131, 

Lace operatives, 13. 

Ladies' garment work, 15. 

Lamb, 286. 

Lane, Dennis, 160. 

Lanza, A. J., 327. 

Lard, 284, 286, 287. 

Laundries, 56. 

Laundry work, 17. 

Lawrence, Mass., 33, 125, 304. 

Laziness, 165. 

Leather manufacturing, 2, 6, 15, 19, 
36, 55, 307, 359. 

Leather novelty work, IS. 

Leipzig Local Sick Fund, 343. 

Letter carriers, 16. 

Levasseur, 346. 

Life, 273. 

Life Extension Institute, 318, 320. 

Life Insurance, Metropolitan, 315, 
316, 343; Prudential, 192, 196, 330. 

Light, 277, 280; absence of sufficient, 
335. 

Lighting, 272-274. 

Liquors, intoxicating, 273. 

Lithographers, 15. 

Lithographic press feeders, 15. 

Lithographic workers, 15. 

Lithuanians, 7, 9, 10, 38, 40. 

Little Italies, 306. 

Liverpool, 158. 



394 



INDEX 



Living, minimum or comfortable, 357. 

Living arrangements, 283, 292, 295- 
304; cooperative, 297. 

Living conditions, 269, 280, 282-312, 
314. 

Local politicians, in league with em- 
ployer, 312. 

Locomotive building, 8. 

Locomotive engineer, 14. 

Locomotive fireman, 14. 

Lodgers, 266, 267, 268, 295-297, 299- 
301, 336, 360, 362, 367. 

Lodging, 296, 297; groups lodging, 
301. 

Lodging houses, 301, 302. 

Long hours, 325 (see also employ- 
ment). 

Longshoremen, 14. 

Loom fixers, 13. 

Loss in working time, 74-116. 

Lost earnings, 161 (see also employ- 
ment, irregularity, wages and earn- 
ings). 

Louisiana, 325. 

Louisiana, sanitation survey, 324. 

Low paid labor, 304. 

Lowell, Mass., 124, 307. 

Lumber and woodworking, 16, 19. 

Luxuries, 282, 283. 

Lynn, Mass., 307, 

Macaroni, 286. 

Macedonian, 7. 

Machine printers, 15. 

Machine textile printers, 13. 

Machinery, new strain, Z27-22%. 

Machinists, 13, 331. 

McNevin v. Solvay Process Company, 
221. 

Magnusson, Leifur, xi. 

Magyar, 7, 9, 10, 136. 

Magyars, 3, 289, 294, 299, 300, 303. 

Maintenance of way employees, 14. 

Male garment workers, 330, 332. 

Manchester, 307. 

Manufacturing community, 294. 

Manufacturing localities, 298. 

Marble work, 12. 

Marine engineers, 14. 

Marriage, 296. 

Married, 296; male, 296, 300. 

Masons, 12, 331, 

Massachusetts, 30, 33, 46, 61, 325; 
Bureau of Statistics of Labor, 78; 
Commission on Minimum Wage, 46, 
88, 364; Industrial Accident Board, 
200; State Report on weekly earn- 
ings, 31; Workmen Compensation 
Act. 200. 

Masters, mates, and pilots, 14. 



Meal. 287. 

Meals, away from home, 286. 

Meat, 275, 276, 289. 

Meat cutters, 17. 

Meat-packing, 2; workers, 279. 

Meats, 287, 290; lean, 287. 

Mechanical trackmen, 14. 

Mental stress, 331. 

Mercantile establishment, 56. 

Meriden, Conn., 307. 

Metal explosions, 202. 

Metal, machinery and ship-building, 
13. 19. 

Metal polishers, 13. 

Metal work, Brotherhood, 13. 

Metropolitan Life Insurance Coih- 
pany 315, 316, 343. 

Michigan, 308, 325; State Commission 
of Inquiry, 46, 49, 50. 

Milk, 283, 285; condensed, 286; fresh, 
286; inspection of, 340. 

Miller, Edith M. 45. 

Mills, movement for better conditions 
in, 323. 

Milwaukee, 291, 294, 305; home-own- 
ing in, 305. 

Mine Workers, United, 14. 

Miners, Western Federation, 14. 

Miners, copper, 279; coal, 279, 308; 
consumption, or silicosis, 214. 

Mining, 36; copper, 2, 6, 35, 359; coal, 
6, 308, 359; iron ore, 2, 307, 308; 
zinc, 327. 

Mining and quarrying, 14, 19. 

Mining communities, 291, 294, 298, 
304. 

Minimum wage, law, 356; Massachu- 
setts Commission, 46, 88, 364; Min- 
nesota Commission, 46. 

Minneapolis, Minn., 291, 302. 

Minnesota, 46, 308, 325; Minimum 
Wage Commission, 46. 

Mississippi River, 311. 

Mobile, Ala., 124. 

Molasses, 284, 286. 

Molders, 13. 

Money, 282; sent abroad, 300. 

Montclair, N. J., 348, 372. 

Moravian, 6, 10. 

Morbidity according to occupation, 
328-329. 

More, Louise B., 372, 373. 

Morgantown, 308. 

Mortality, apoplexy cause of, diges- 
tive system, nervous system, heart, 
kidney, liver, urinary system, 320; 
according to occupation, 329-330 
(see also death). 

Mortgage, 273, 

Mothers, 268. 



INDEX 



395 



Municipalities, reform by, 309. 

Music, 18, 19. 

Musical and theatrical union, 18. 

Musicians, 18. 

Mutton, 286. 

Native, 6, 10, 38, 276, 279, 287, 295, 
298; white, 263, 268, 269, 277-279, 
285, 287, 288, 289, 294, 295, 298; 
negro, 6, 8, 10; Indian, 10; preju- 
dice toward foreigners, 311. 

Nativity groups, 263. 

Nature of injuries, 203-212 (see also 
accidents, injuries). 

Negro wage-earners, 278. 

Netherlands, 6. 

Neurasthenia, 331. 

New Bedford, Mass., 307. 

New Britain, 307. 

New Hampshire, 307. 

New Jersey, 30, 33, 61, 325; State re- 
port on weekly earnings, 31. 

New London, 124. 

New strain, 327-328. 

New York Charity Organization So- 
ciety, 172, 

New York Dock Works, Commission 
on Industrial Relations on, 145. 

New York City, 125, 265, 267, 291, 
294, 295, 302, 305, 324, 327, 330, 
332, 333, 335, 346, 374; Bureau of 
Standards, 272, 373. 

New York State, 307, 325; Commis- 
sion on Employer's Liability and 
Unemployment, 78, 94; Conference 
of Charities and Corrections on, 
353, 374, 375; Department of La- 
bor, 11, 12; Court of Appeals, 221; 
Factory Investigation Commission, 
22, 33, 47, 324, 373. 

Newark, 125, 291, 307. 

Newspapers, 273. 

Non-family, 297, 298; group, 296. 

Non-industrial pursuits, community 
environment, 308. 

Northern Europe, 279, 

Norwegian, 7. 

Oatmeal, 286. 

Occupational accident hazards, 194 

(see also accidents, industrial). 
Occupational disease hazards, 314, 

321, 328. 
O'Hern, John E., 160. 
Ohio, 30, 42, 308, 324, 325; Industrial 

Commission, 32; State Report on 

weekly earnings, 31, 32. 
Oil refining, 2, 6, 307, 359. 
Old age. 320. 
Oleomargarine, 286. 



Olive oil, 286, 289. 

Oregon, 46, 364; Social Welfare 

Committee, 46. 
Organ work, 16. 
Organizations, 273. 
Overcrowded families, 371. 
Overcrowding, to reduce rent, 335. 
Overdriving, 331; speeding up, 328. 
Overstrain incident to piece-work 

system, 327. 
Ownership of homes, 302, 

Painters, 12, 331. 

Paper and wood pulp manufacturing, 

8, 10, 27, 56. 
Paper makers, 15. 
Paper manufacturing, Holyoke, Mass., 

307. 
Paper mill work, 15. 
Paper printing and book binding, 15, 

19. 
Paper products, 8, 10. 
Parasitic industries, 172. 
Parents, 269, 271; foreign, 263; na- 
tive, 263. 
Passaic, N. J., 307. 
Paterson, N. J., 125, 291, 304, 307. 
Pattern makers, 13. 
Pavers, 14. 
Paving cutters, 14. 
Peas, 283, 284; dried, 286. 
Pellagra, 334. 
Pennsylvania, 61, 125, 289, 307, 308, 

325. 
Pensacola, Fla., 124. 
Permanency of residence, 296, 297, 

298, 303, 304. 
Philaddphia, Pa., 125, 291, 294, 302, 

305. 
Photo engravers, 15. 
Physical examination and. supervision 

of workers, 314. 
Physical impairment of workers, 332. 
Physician's interest in the health of 

wage-earners, 313, 
Piano and organ work, 16. 
Pickles, 286. 
Piece-work, 325; overstrain incident 

to, 327; piece-rate system, 234, 236. 
Pin money theory, 263. 
Pittsburgh, Pa., 124, 291, 308, 375. 
Plant, single, etc. (see Single plant, 

etc.). 
Plasterers, 12, 
Playgrounds, 228. 
Power machinery, accidents due to, 

199. 
Plumbers, 12, 331. 
Pocket-knife grinders, 13. 
Poles, 4, 5, 289. 



396 



INDEX 



Polish, 7, 9, 10, 38, 136, 294, 299, 300. 

Political cause of the segregation of 
wage-earners, 310-312. 

Politician, local, in league with em- 
ployer, 312. 

Potomac, 311. 

Poverty, cause of disease, 314. 

Poverty, tuberculosis and, 351. 

Poverty and adequate subsistence, 368. 

Poverty and disease, 344. 

Pork, 289; fresh, 283, 286; salt, 283, 
286. 

Porto Rico. 176. 

Portsmouth, N. H., 124. 

Portuguese, 7. 303. 

Post Office Clerks* Association, Fed- 
eral, 16. 

Poster artists, 15. 

Potatoes, Irish, 284, 285, 286; sweet, 
284, 286. 287. 

Potters, 16. 

Pottery, 37, 56. 

Poultry, 286. 

Powder work. 16. 

Power machinery, 199. 

Prevalence of sickness among wage- 
earners, 315; greater, of disease 
among industrial workers, 317. 

Prices, rise in, clothing, food, fuel, 
housing, wages of building labor, 
household furnishing, 380. 

Print cutters, 13. 

Printers, 331. 

Printing, 56. 

Printing and bookbinding, 37. 

Printing pressmen, 15. 

Profit-sharing, xi. 

Profit sharing and bonus plans, 220; 
benefits accruing, 224; employees 
have tio legal claim upon profits, 
221; limited plans, 223; promoters' 
service, 226. 

Protein foods, 283, 287. 

Providence, R. I., 307. 

Prudential Life Insurance Company, 
192. 196. 330. 

Public administration, class distinction 
in. 310. 

Public health, not for the working men 
and their families, but to protect the 
better classes from contagion, 310 
(see also health). 

Public improvements, lack of, 306. 

Public service, 16, 19. 

Pulp and paper mill work, 15. 

Quarry work, 14. 
Quincy, 111., 124. 

Race distribution of employees for 



whom information was secured, by 
industry, 6. 

Racial composition of industrial work- 
ers. 1. 

Racial distinctions, 311. 

Racial distribution in industries, 5. 

Racial institutions, 311. 

Railway carmen, 13. 

Railway clerks, 14. 

Railway conductors, 14. 

Railway Mail Association, 16. 

'Railway postal clerks, 16. 

Railroad freight handlers, 14. 

Railroad signalmen, 14. 

Railroad station agents, 14. 

Railroad station employees, 14. 

Railroad telegraphers, 14. 

Reform, by employers, by municipali- 
ties, 309. 

Religion, 273. 

Religious distinctions, 311. 

Rent, 272, 27Z, 275, 276, 277, 278, 
279, 280, 281, 297, 302, 310, 380; 
overcrowding to reduce, 335. 

Reserve of labor, 163. 

Residential neighborhoods, 310. 

■Restaurants and trade, 19. 

Retail clerks, 17. 

Retail prices of foods, 379, 380. 

Rhode Island, 307. 

Rice. 286. 

Rochester, N. Y., 125, 265, 307, 343. 

Rolls. 286. 290. 

Rope, twine and hemp manufacturing, 
8. 10. 

Rossford, O., 308. 

Roumanian, 7, 299, 300, 303. 

Rowntree, B. S., 346. 

Royal Statistical Society, London, 
343. 

Rubinow, T. M., 379. 

Russia, 6, 8, 10. 

Russian, 5, 7, 10, 38, 277, 287, 294, 
299. 300. 303. 

Russian Hebrew, 38. 

Ruthenian, 7, 303. 

Safeguards in factories and employer- 
owned dwellings, 314. 

Safety first, 314. 

Sago, 286. 

St. Louis, Mo., 125, 291, 302, 331. 

St. Paul, Minn., 291, 302. 

San Francisco Cooperative Employ 
ment Bureau, 171, 333. 

Sanitation, a mark of interest in the 
health of wage-earners, 313; survey 
of the State of Louisiana, 324; sani- 
tary conveniences in factories and 
employer-owned dwellings, 314. 



INDEX 



397 



Sargent, Frank B., 117. 

Sausage, 286. 

Savannah, Ga., 124. 

Savings, proportioned to size of fam- 
ily. 277. 

Sawsmiths, 13. 

Schereschewsky, J. W., 330, 337. 

Schwab, Sidney L., 331. 

Scientific management, xi, 234-243; 
practised in Watertown Arsenal, 
240, 241; furthers the modern in- 
dustry toward specialization, 242 
(see also Taylor system, piece-rate 
system), 

Scotch, 5, 7, 10, 38, 136, 277, 279, 287, 
294, 298. 

Scotland, 6, 8, 10, 269, 303. 

Seamen, 14. 

Segregation (see Wage-earners, segre- 
gation of). 

Servants, 264. 

Servian, 7, 136, 294, 299, 300, 303. 

Sewage facilities, lack of, 306. 

Sewing machine manufacturing, 8, 
10. 

Sex, difference in, 344. 

Shacks, housing, 291. 

Shenangoes, 172, 333. 

Sheet metal work, 12. 

Shifting population, 304. 

iihiftlessness, 165. 

Shoe work. United, 15. 

Shoe workers, 279. 

Shoes. 359. 

Sickness, 273; bad housing, 321; cause 
of decrease in efficiency, 320; cause 
of loss of time. 320; cause of un- 
employment, 316, 317; caused by 
harmful conditions of work, 322, 
323; destroyed efficiency, cause of, 
321; cost of in wages, 320; cost of 
in medical attention, 320; discour- 
agement, 321 ; employees of the Fed- 
leral Governments in Washington, 
329; insufficient diet, 321; mental 
depression, cause of, 321; railroad 
employees in U. S., 329; statistics, 
England, 320; statistics, Germany, 
320; U. S. Steel Company, 329; 
worry, cause of, 321; survey made 
by Metropolitan Life Insurance 
Company, 316-317. 

Silk, 37. 57. 

Silk dyeing, 2, 6. 

Silk goods, 6. 359. 

Silk goods manufacturing, 2. 

Silk workers, 304. 

Single plant, affording entire demand 
for labor, 304; houses owned by em- 
ployer of, 304. 



Skilled workers, 269, 276, 303; per- 
manency of residence, 304. 

Slack seasons, 331. 

Slate and tile roofers, 12. 

Slate work, 14. 

Slaughtering, 6, 37, 359. 

Slaughtering and meat-paeking, 2; 
workers, 279. 

Slovak, 3, 5, 7, 9, 10, 38, 136, 289, 
294, 299, 300. 503. 

Slovenian. 7. 

Smelting workers, 279. 

Social insurance, 356. 

Social Welfare Committee, Oregon, 
46, 

Social worker, interest in health of 
wage-earner, 313. 

Solvay Process Company, 221. 

Sources of family income, 253. 

Spanish, 7. 

Spaghetti, 286, 289. 

Speeding up, 328; overdriving, 331. 

Spinners, 13. 

Staff report, U. S. Commission on 
Industrial Relations, 362. 

Stage, theatrical, employees, 18. 

Standard of living, 268, 269, 276, 277, 
278, 279, 282, 283, 288, 289, 297, 
300. 309. 332. 

Standard of living, 1913, 382. 

Starchy foods, 284, 287. 

State, welfare of, 362. 

State employees, 16. 

Stationary firemen, 17. 

Statistical speculation as to conclu- 
sions shunned, x. 

Steam engineers, 17. 

Steam railway transportation, 8. 

Steam shovelmen, 14. 

Steel, 307, 308. 

Steel plate printers, 15, 

Steel plate transferrers, 15. 

Steel workers. 289. 304. 

Steelton, 308, 

Stella, Antonio, 338, 

Stereotypers and electrotypers, 15. 

Steubenville, O.. 308. 

Stogie workers. 17. 

Stone. N. T., 90. 

Stone cutters, 16. 

Stone workers, 331. 

Stores, movement for better condi- 
tions in, 323, 

Stove mounters, 13, 

Straw hatters, ladies', 15. 

Street and electric railway companies, 
14, 

Structure and methods, industrial, 
changes in. 120. 

Stupidity, 165. 



398 



INDEX 



Subsistence, 272, 280, 297; adequate, 

369; inadequate, 371, 
Suet. 286. 

Sugar, 284, 286; refining, 2, 6. 
Summary presented in this volume is 

a summary of conditions as they 

have been found to exist from 1900- 

1914. 15. xi. 
Sweating, 170. 265. 
Sweden. 6. 
Swedes, 5. 

Swedish. 7. 9. 10, 279. 
Switchmen, 14. 
Switzerland, 6. 

Sydenstricker, Edgar, 315, 316. 
Syrian, 7, 303. 
Syrup, 284, 286. 

Tailors. 15. 331. 

Tarentum, Pa., 307. 

Taxes, 273, 310. 

Taylor, Frederick W., 233, 235. 

Tea, 286. 

Teamsters, 14. 

Telegraphers, commercial, railroad, 14. 

Tenements, 304. 305. 

Textile, machine textile printers, 13. 

Textile manufacturing centers, 307. 

Textile work, 13. 

Textile workers. 331. 

Theaters and music, 18, 19. 

Theatrical stage employees, 18. 

Tile work. 16. 

Timber work, 16. 

Times Annalist, N. Y., 380. 

Tobacco, 17, 273. 

Toilets, insanitary, 335. 

Toledo, O., 104. 

Tool manufacturing, 8. 

Towne. Henry R.. 234, 

Trade and Fed. Unions (A. F. L.). 17. 

Trade Union, extent of membership, 
11; growth in union membership, 
18; proportion of workers organized, 
19; unemployment reports, 316. 

Trade-Union membership, 11; table of 
trades, 12-18; growth, 18; per cent, 
of total membership, 19. 

Trade-Union organization, 11; propor- 
tion of workers. 19, 20. 

Transportation, 14, 19; electric rail- 
way, 8; steam railway, 8. 

Traveling goods and leather novelty 
work, 15. 

Trend toward a shorter working day, 
176. 

Troy, N. Y.. 124, 307. 

Tuberculosis, 327, 330, 331, 334; and 
poverty, 351; European statistics on, 
336; mortality statistics, 331. 



Tuberculosis environment, 349. 
Tuberculosis workers, 2^2. 
Tunnel constructors, 14. 
Typewriter manufacturing, 8, 10. 

Underclothed families, 371. 

Underfed families, 370. 371. 

Underbill, F. R., 370. 

Unemployment, 100-111, 296; accident 
disability, cause of, 316, 317; analy- 
sis of causes, 117; by cities, 104, 
105; by unions, Mass., 116; due to 
changes in organization, 130; due 
to changes in quantity and character 
of labor supply, 131-137; due to dull 
seasons, 150; in Calif., 151; due to 
introduction of machinery, 126-128; 
due to fluctuations in industry, 137, 
138, 139-152; due to irregularities in 
industries, 152, 153; due to prevail- 
ing practises in shop management, 
160; due to sickness, 165; old age, 
167; effects of, 169-175; in garment 
trade, Indiana, 148; in Labor 
Unions, New York, 141; in principal 
industries, 143; investigated by 
trade unions, 316; sickness, cause 
of, 316, 317; survey of, Metropoli- 
tan Life Insurance Co., 315. 

Unhealthful living conditions, 334. 

United mine workers, 14. 

United shoe work, 15. 

United States, 268, 270, 272, 277, 279, 
283, 285, 288, 303, 318; Central 
States, 278, 287; Eastern States, 
291, 307; Middle West, 278, 291, 
303, 307; New England States, 278, 
291, 307; North Atlantic States, 
285, 287; Northern States, 287; 
Southern States, 278, 287, 291; 
Western States, 285, 287. 

U. S. Bureau of Animal Industry, 
340. 

U. S. Bureau of Labor, 48, 247, 250, 
252, 264, 272-274, 304, 359, 380. 

U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 102, 
148, 149, 180, 315, 380. 

U. S. Children's Bureau, 347, 371, 372. 

U. S, Immigration Commission, 1, 4, 
5, 30, 31, 63, 133, 266, 278, 279, 
292-294, 298, 305, 311, 358, 361. 

U. S. Public Health Service, 315, 325, 
327. 334. 382. 

United States Steel Corporation, 70. 

Unmarried, male, female, 296. 

Unskilled labor, 266, 276, 304, 

Unskilled occupations, newer immigra- 
tion, 306, 

Unskilled worker, incapable of initia- 
tive, 312. 



INDEX 



399 



Unskilled worker, foreign, at mercy 
of local politician, 312; at mercy of 
employer, 311, 312; segregation of, 
311; streets on which he lives, 306; 
ward of the community in which he 
lives. 312. 

Upholsterers, 16. 

Utah. 364. 

Utensils, 273. 

Utica, 307. 

Vacations, 273. 

Valentine, 243. 

Valiant, Frances, Miss, xi. 

Van Kleek, Miss, 91. 

Vapors, 323. 

Veal. 286. 

Vegetables, 289; canned, 284, 286; 

green, 284, 286. 
Ventilation, lack of, 335. 
Vinegar, 286. 
Virginia, 308. 
Visiting nurse service, 228. 

Wage-earners, 272, 274, 277, 280, 283, 
287; American-born, 288, 302; child, 
301; community benefits of, 306; 
difference of economic status of, 
309; environment of, 306; English- 
born, 303; family, 246-282, 309; 
foreign-bom, 2; in industries, 2; in 
16 minor industries, 8, 9, 10; in 21 
basic industries, 6, 7; governmental 
health insurance, 314; health, 313- 
356; loss in working time, 74; prev- 
alence of sickness among, 315-321; 
segregation of, 306, 310-312; women, 
301-303; in boarding and lodging 
houses, 302; adrift, 301, 302; in 
private families, 302; keeping house, 
302; segregation, political cause of, 
310-312. 

Wage-earning family, 244, 246-282, 
309; annual income, 246; budget, 
244; distribution according to in- 
come, 249; community environment, 
305; contribution by women work- 
ers in factories, mills, etc., in seven 
cities, living at home, 262; diet of, 
283; distribution of different races 
according to income, 249, 250; 
higher cost of living, 377; housing 
conditions, 291; income according 
to geographical divisions, 250, 251; 
income according to industry, 251, 
252; living arrangements, 295; 
ownership of homes, 302; sickness 
in, 315; sources of income, 25, 253, 
440; in principal industries, 254; 
sources of income, by race, 255; 



from husband, wife, children, board- 
ers or lodgers, 256; from specified 
sources in 2,421 families of textile 
workers, 260; in specific industries, 
by general nativity groups, 258; in 
1,909 families of silk mill workers, 
259; standard of living of, 367. 

Wages, 29-69, 280, 282, 297. 

Wages and earnings, adequacy of, 
357-383; family income, 366; inade- 
quacy of, 362; increases, recent, 69- 
71; loss of, from sickness, 317; of 
male workers to support families, 
357; weekly, male workers, 29, 30, 
34-37; women's wages, 363. 

Wages, weekly, male workers, 29; fe- 
male workers, 43; in various indus- 
tries, 40; differences in women's 
wages according to industry, 47; dif- 
ference in wages of men and women 
workers, 57; recent increases in 
wage rates, 69-71. 

Wages in various industries, 40-42, 
53-57; annual earnings, male, 64- 
67; female, 67-69; difference be- 
tween men and women, 57; rate of, 
male, 43, 44, 51; female. 45. 

Wages of building labor, rise of, 380. 

Waitresses, 264. 

Wales, 6, 8. 10. 

Wants, physical, 290. 

War Order Industries, 4. 

Warren, B. S., 315, 316. 

Washington, D. C, 374. 

Washington Street District, 336. 

Waste. 290. 

Water, lack of, 306. 

Watertown, Arsenal, 240. 

Webb, Sidney and Beatrice, 321, 352. 

Wealthy citizen, taxes, 310. 

Weekly earnings (see earnings, 
weekly). 

Welfare, social, Oregon Committee, 
46. 

Welfare work, xi, 227; multiplicity of 
forms, 228, 299; U. S. Steel Cor- 
poration, 230; visiting nurse service, 
232. 

Welsh, 7, 38, 136, 287, 298. 

West Virginia, 308. 

Western Europe, 279, 287. 

Wheat. 284. 

White Rats Actors' Union, 18. 

Wife, 265, 266, 270, 273, 292, 301, 333. 

Wilbur 318. 

Wilmington, 307, 

Window glass snapper, 16. 

Window glass work, 16. 

Wire weavers, 13. 



400 



INDEX 



Wisconsin, 62, 265; Industrial Com- 
mission, 201, 261, 263-265, 363. 

Wolman, Leo, 11. 

Women, 301, 321, 325; and child wage- 
earners, 304; employment in factor- 
ies prejudicial to health, 314; in 
industries, 20-24; age groups, 22-24; 
wages, by industries, 47-51 (see also 
working day for women). 

Women wage-earners, 263, 301, 363; 
age of, 264; girls, 264; married, 263; 
three classes of, 365; unmarried, 
263; widows, 263. 

Wood and metal lathers, 12. 

Wood carvers, 16. 

Wool sorters and graders, 13. 

Woolens and worsteds, 2, 6, 37, 57. 

Woolston, H. B., >, 115, 148. 

Workers industrial, racial composition 
of 1; physical examination and su- 
pervision of, 314; physical impair- 
ment of, 332. 

Workers, low paid, housing conditions, 
306; male, annual earnings, 358. 

Workers, skilled (see skilled workers). 

Working-class neighborhoods, 310; 
sections, 309; town, 310. 

Working conditions, 176-245; causing 



thereby excessive fatigue, 325-328. 

Working day, for men, in heavy in- 
dustries, 186; in mines and quarries, 
186; in pulp and paper mills, 186; 
in telephone and telegraph work, 
187; in principal industries, 183. 

Working day, for women in men's 
ready-made clothing industry, 190, 
191; in metal trades, 191. 

Workingraen, 269, 272; families, of, 
310. 

Working time, 74-100, 280; loss in, 
72-75, 90; wage-earners* loss, 74- 
80; general statistics and statements, 
76; statistics for specific industries, 
81; statistics for specific trades and 
occupations, 93 (see also unemploy- 
ment, extent of). 

Workmen compensation, Massachu- 
setts, 200. 

Worry, cause of sickness, 321. 

Y. M. C. A., 229. 

Young Men's Christian Association, 

229. 
Youngstown, O., 308, 337. 

Zinc mines, 327. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 



401 



A List of the More Important Works Cited 
IN This Book 



American Federotionist. Official maga- 
zine of the American Federation of 
Labor, New York, October, 1915. 

Andrews, Irene Osgood: Irregular 
employment and the living wage. 
In American Labor Legislation Re- 
view, June, 1915. 

Austria: Ministerium des Innern; 
Amtliche Nachrichten betr. Unfall- 
und Kranken Versicherung, Wien, 
1913. 

Barnett, Geo. E.: Growth of Labor 

Organization in the U. S., 1987-1914. 

In Quarterly Journal of Economics, 

August, 1916. 
Beveridge, Wm. H. : Unemployment, a 

Problem of Industry. London, 1912. 
Bogart, H. R.: Testimony; Hearings 

on the Seasonal Labor Problem in 

California, San Francisco. 
Booth, Charles: Life and Labor of the 

People in London. London, 1902. 
Byington, M. F. : Homestead; the 

Households of a Mill town. New 

York, 1910. 

California: Industrial Accident Board; 
Report, 1914-15, Sacramento, 1915. 

California: Industrial Welfare Com- 
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Sacramento, 1915, 

Chapin, R. C,: Standard of Living 
Among Workingmen's Families in 
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Connecticut: Bureau of Labor Statis- 
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of Wage-earning Women and Girls. 
Hartford, 1914. 

Consumers' League of Eastern Penn- 
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Consumers' League of Oregon: Social 
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